René Magritte was a Belgian surrealist and is one of my favorite artists. You may recognize his piece entitled, “The Son of Man,” which features a man wearing a suit and bowler hat with a large green apple obscuring his face. Part of why I enjoy Magritte’s work is because it challenges our preconditioned ideas regarding reality. I personally require no less than three major reality checks daily. These checks often come when I view budgets, bank statements, and mirrors.
Another of Magritte’s pieces (which I am happy to reference here, as I now own a t-shirt that parodies the work and tire of explaining it) is a deceptively simple painting of a pipe used for smoking, captioned with the phrase “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” (translated from French: “This is not a pipe.”) An observer at first glance might say to herself or someone standing nearby, “Ummm... That is definitely a pipe. What’s the joke here?” The esoteric art critic would respond, “This is not a pipe but merely a painting that features an image of a pipe.” Queue your mind being blown or a possible “Meh.”
In Ephesians 5:1-2, the writer tells his audience to “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do.” (NLT) We are to “live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.” I long attempted to over complicate my personal understanding of scripture by adding rules, traditions, and complex theology. Paul gives us the simple directive to imitate our Lord and Savior. We are to become not just an image or idea that reflects Christ, but we are to love as He loved when he gave his life on our behalf.
