We live in a highly materialistic culture, concerning ourselves with what we can see, touch, and directly experience…yet ideas are what truly make the world go around.

Because of our focus on practical matters, ideas tend to be dismissed as little more than bits of fluff in the mind, far removed from reality. Ultimately, though, ideas induce action, meaning that they are in fact the basis of reality…for reality is composed of countless ideas that have been expressed through time. Artists paint their ideas, musicians play their ideas, and so forth.

Then the ideas proliferate and expand, as people have different interpretations of the original expression. If 1,000 people see a painting, there are 1,000 unique perspectives of the same work of art. Like the different perspectives of the four gospels, all describe the same reality in their own way.

Considering all of these different perspectives, one might think the artist’s intentions are drowned out and rendered pointless by the audience’s interpretations. To the contrary, the artist’s intentions are of the highest importance, because the artist brought the original idea into the world with a sense of Purpose, for a particular reason…to inspire certain thoughts, emotions, or actions in the audience. That purpose is accomplished if the audience is able to pick up on the essence of the artist’s idea, which is understood implicitly even while being interpreted through the perspectives of differing worldviews.

For example, Christ arrived in this world with a clear sense of purpose. On the cross He said, “It is finished.” That is, the divine purpose of His life — the masterpiece of redemption — had been accomplished. And this grand idea has been sustaining the lives of people around the world ever since.