The burden you cannot carry

[MoreCoffee]

Art can teach deep truths. One image - the one shown above - teaches us about burdens too weighty to carry.

I'll tell you a story. It is from many decades ago. It is about a teenager who first encountered Jesus in a Kingdom Hall. He heard a public talk from one of the people there. It was not well presented. The speaker had no significant talent for public speaking. He was not artful. He did not have a commanding voice nor a stage presence that would draw your attention. He was as artful as an average person. His talk was forgettable except for one thing. The text that he spoke about. It read thus:

(Matthew 11:28-30) 28 Come to me, all YOU who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh YOU. 29 Take my yoke upon YOU and learn from me, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and YOU will find refreshment for YOUR souls. 30 For my yoke is kindly and my load is light.​

After a few years the lad became a Baptist Christian. Then later under the influence of close friends he became a Pentecostal for a short time. Then out of personal conviction he became a Presbyterian, a Calvinist. Many years passed and disappointments along with many of life's lessons taught him to be an atheist. Finally he returned (or was it came for the first time) to Christ.

The art work is the visible form of being loaded down.

 

[Lamb]

It's a beautiful piece of sculpture. Do you know what material it's made of?

 

[MoreCoffee]

It's a beautiful piece of sculpture. Do you know what material it's made of?

I am not sure. It is called The Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone by Auguste Rodin.

 

[Lamb]

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rodin-the-fallen-caryatid-carrying-her-stone-n05955
In 1880 Rodin was commissioned to make a portal and set of monumental doors for the Musée des arts décoratifs in Paris. This work, known as 'The Gates of Hell', included a large number of figures in relief. These inspired several individual works, including this caryatid. An early version of this sculpture was exhibited in 1886. Three years later one critic wrote, 'this supple little creature, not more that eighteen inches high, is regarded by the sculptor and his friends as one of his very best compositions, and many copies of it have been made for the latter in both marble and bronze'. This particular bronze was made in 1950 from a plaster cast.