Copyright 2011 by Melanie Spinks
Copyright 2011 by Melanie Spinks
84″ x 48″; Graphite and Wash on Paper
The scarlet thread is an ancient symbol of Divine favor over all of human history. The history model given in scripture is that God created a perfect world. People wanted to become their own sovereigns, and rebelled against the rule of God. This act of treason broke Shalom in the universe, opening the door wide for sin (that which fractures Shalom) to proliferate in the world as we know it today. This peace still escapes us as it has our common ancestors; humans can’t handle being their own god – with power for greatness but also with power to destroy. This is the curse, the fall, the twist in the cloth. 2,000 years ago, God entered our story: Jesus, Messiah (what Christ literally means), to do that which we could not do for ourselves. It is written in Hebrew scriptures that cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. Here, God took the curse upon Himself by allowing himself to be nailed to a cross (a tree). He not only died the death we should have died, he lived the life we should have lived, providing the very righteousness He requires. Jesus is God becoming a substitutionary sacrifice in our behalf, and proving so with power by His resurrection from the dead. Justice was fulfilled because God bore the penalty of all that we have done for us. Now salvation, which is the forgiveness of sins – those things we have done to fracture Shalom – is available to any who will accept it. Now are the days of Jubilee (the time of freedom, of open gates) and no one who comes to God through the sacrifice of Jesus will be turned away. Essentially, this means the restoration of the rule of God in one’s life, the return to the way that things should be; God’s peace, provision, harmony. ” We are not bad people in need of being made good; we are rebels who need to lay down our arms” (Newman). This is the unfurling of the cloth. We live now in the time of the already-and-not-yet. Jesus initiated the coming of the Kingdom of God, restoring Shalom first in our hearts in relationship with God. Until fulfillment when peace is restored in all of nature, there are reversals that we are yet to face. Yet all of human history is encapsulated within his hands, and he has us until the end. In much the same way, this pattern cycles in the microcosm of nations and in our individual lives (sometimes over and over again throughout our lives – in many aspects of our lives). Stasis-Fall-Twisting-Becoming Untwisted-the Unfurling-Reversal-Reversal Again to Resolution. Nothing is meaningless. All of our stories comprise the larger story heading toward resolution itself.