Sistine Chapel

Even if you’ve never visited Rome, the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Palace may have a familiar feel. This 13th-century chapel, built to the dimensions of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6), is where cardinals meet to elect a new pope. It also houses some of the most famous and widely reproduced painted scenes known to man.

The Sistine Chapel’s ceiling is adorned by Michelangelo’s most famous of frescoes—you know, the one with the finger of God nearly touching the finger of Adam. It’s called The Creation of Adam, and one would expect this important canvas to fill every inch of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t even occupy the focal point.

More Than Meets the Eye

The Creation of Adam is just one of nearly three dozen paintings that make up the entirety of the ceiling. It competes for your attention against five panels that depict Creation; three that tell of Noah’s life; one each for Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Isaiah, Joel, and—well, you get the picture. Try to soak in all of the beauty in the Sistine Chapel, and you’ll barely take in any. It’s like trying to quench your thirst from the proverbial fire hose. To attempt to take in all the beauty may prevent you from internalizing any of it.

Take it in little by very little bit. . . . Let your eyes be drawn to one panel, one story, one scene.

The best way to be impacted by the true, the good, and the beautiful of the Sistine Chapel is to focus. Take it in little by very little bit. Quietly. Gently. Let your eyes be drawn to one panel, one story, one scene. Carefully set your gaze on one—and look until you see something. Seek to see the true, the good, and the beautiful in one set of fingers that nearly touch. Notice the half-hearted look in Adam’s eyes or the committed look in God’s. Zoom in quietly and perceive that where Adam’s index finger is passive, the Creator’s is extended in earnest, as if to express that one’s relationship with his Creator comes “by grace . . . through faith . . . [and is] the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). 

And, just before you walk away, remember to look into the face of Adam—and see there your own face reflected in the Imago Dei.

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