The Art of Life Bible - Flipbook - Page 6
Welcome to
The Art of Life
Holy Bible
God is the great artist, the grand designer. He created a
world of striking beauty and placed within it complex
ecosystems to support life of astounding variety. God
filled the world with living things—people, plants, animals—that express his creativity, his loving character,
and his desire for community. But God’s art isn’t woven
of fabric, carved in wood, shaped of clay, written on paper, or painted on canvas. It’s alive and able to grow, heal,
and reproduce. It’s art that was intended to express God’s
inclination toward wholeness and interdependence for
all of earth’s flourishing life.
rounded by particular plants and animals. The art of life
in this Bible places the writings of Scripture within the
physical realm and historical flow that defines the world
of real, physical experience. The Scriptures aren’t a book
of myths disconnected from life. They remind us not only
that God created the world and the life in it, but that he is
also present in our lives today, in the life he created to inhabit and enrich our flourishing world, in the daily events
and activities in our homes, communities, and nations.
The Creator also inspired the biblical writers to reveal
God’s truth by using metaphors drawn from the natural
world. For example, the apostle John used the grapevine
to illustrate how we, like branches, must remain constantly connected to God’s Son, the grapevine, if we desire
to live the abundant life God wants for us. Various writers
used the olive tree to remind us that we, like the olive
tree, are to be a fruitful blessing to the people around us.
The writers used sheep to remind us of our tendency to
wander from the Good Shepherd and our need to remain
close to him. They used lions and wolves to illustrate the
destructive consequences of misused power and the dangerous presence of evil among us. God “wrote” these and
many other living symbols into the fabric of the world he
created and inspired his writers of Scripture to connect
them to his eternal truth. The Art of Life Holy Bible sets
out to highlight these connections for you.
God’s creativity is especially expressed in humans, who
were created in God’s very image. We have been made
with the desire and ability to create beauty, shape the
world around us, and participate in the movement of
God’s narrative for the world. (Some of this human creativity has been expressed in the creation of this Bible.)
God made us as humans with the ability to participate in
writing our own stories, whether for good or for evil. And
he created us with the ability to participate—through
friendship with our creator and his present Holy Spirit—in writing God’s life-giving presence and power into
the lives of the people and communities around us. This
is something God has planned for our good. God created
humans, in part, to oversee the earth’s communities and
ecosystems and to enable all life to find a pathway to
peace and health and wholeness—God’s shalom.
Features in This Bible
The Art of Life Holy Bible contains the entire text of the
Bible translated into clear, natural English (the New Living
Translation). As such, it can be read and studied as any Bible
can. However, the extra features in this Bible offer a rich
tapestry of artwork illustrating many of the living things
mentioned in Scripture—people, plants, and animals—
with reflective captions that highlight their significance.
The art in this Bible—which illustrates many of the
people, plants, and animals mentioned in Scripture—
reminds us that the Scriptures, though inspired by God,
also reflect the stuff of earth. The books of the Bible were
written by real people with real families and cultures and
homes, in particular places with particular climates, sur-
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