Friday, February 16, 2018
Mona Lisa Defaced
Suppose
tomorrow’s lead news story read as follows:
“Pandemonium broke out yesterday
afternoon at The Louvre in Paris, France, when a 33 year old aspiring artist disabled
a security guard, shattered the 1.52 inch-thick protective glass, and immediately
began painting a bigger smile on the face of the Mona Lisa! The culprit was
apprehended and jailed, but not before doing incalculable damage. Experts are
not certain that the painting can be restored.”
Can
you imagine the sorrow and outrage?
While some may not care, much of the world would be up in arms,
demanding that the perpetrator be punished to the full extent of the law. The
Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1506 A.D. It is one
of the most widely recognized paintings in the world. Wikipedia claims that “It holds the Guinness
World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at $100
million in 1962, which is worth nearly $800 million in 2017.” To deface such an
invaluable piece of art would be reprehensible indeed.
Most
reasonable people would likely agree that only the creator of such a valuable
masterpiece should have the right to change it.
Even if another more-talented artist should some day be discovered, it
would still not be appropriate for them to “fix” or “improve” upon such a
masterpiece.
You and I are also masterpieces. Moses described our origin like this:
“So
God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful
and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the
birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Then God
said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and
all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food
for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that
scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.
Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And
evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day. (Genesis 1:27-31 NLT)
God
created mankind just the way He wanted them, and then He gave them the
responsibility of overseeing everything that was created. He would eventually
provide a user handbook—more commonly known as The Holy Bible. When mankind tries to reinvent himself or
change the prescribed rules of operation, we should all be appalled. To deface
or devalue mankind is to mar the most beautiful and significant creation of all
time. No other creation was designed to
be at one with the Creator. No other
creation can create, love and forgive like mankind. And no other creation was
built to live forever. We are God’s handiwork.
When
individuals or people groups arbitrarily decide to “redesign” mankind, they
become just as destructive and scandalous as the culprit described at the
beginning of this article. They have no
right. Their actions prove that they
lack wisdom, discretion and taste. A
respectable society would quickly take measures to restrain their destructive
behavior, so that all mankind can enjoy the beauty and integrity of God’s prized
creation. Protect mankind; insist that we hold to the Creator’s original design.
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