Picturing Scripture

I love seeing how Scripture inspires artists. For the last few years, I’ve been digging what’s coming out of Faithlife (formerly known as Logos Bible Software), with their verse of the day art. For the last five years, their in-house team has been developing a series of pieces of art based on hundreds of Bible verses, which have appeared all over social media, blogs, t-shirts, mugs… and now, a coffee table book, Picturing Scripture, which Faithlife is launching this week on Kickstarter:

This book brings together a large group of designers and writers to share art and words reflecting on and inspired by 100 verses. And a few months ago, I received an email from the crew working on this project, asking me if I’d take part by writing a personal reflection on John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’.”

In about 200 words.

(In case you’re wondering, this blog post is already about as long as what I wrote in this book.)

And so I set to work, trying to think about what this verse has meant to me—considering the feelings and memories that it stirred up. My attempts to try to be a “good person”, despite being kind of a jerk. My dabbling in various eastern spiritual practices as a teen in a futile attempt to impress girls. (Though to be fair, my attempts to impress girls in general were pretty futile.) On and on and on I could go. But when it comes right down to it, it’s the exclusivity of Jesus’ words that are so haunting and terrifying, even as they’re assuring.

Contributing to this project was a great blessing, and as tempting as it is to give away everything I wrote (after all, it’s pretty short), I’d much rather you see it alongside its artwork. So, I hope you’ll grab yourself a copy for yourself and for a friend or loved one. How do you do it? Simple: head over to Kickstarter, choose the perk you want, and make your pledge. You’ll get your books just in time for Christmas.