Of pictures and monuments…

Reading a news item of a former mayor ranting about the removal of his portraits from City Hall, I am tempted to maybe suggest – why don’t we make all the hallways in Cebu City Hall as picture galleries? That way, people who are interested to see their pictures there will have ample spaces to hang them on. Or fill the green spaces in front of City Hall with monuments. Surely these three-dimensional statues are better and more edifying than simple flat pictures on a wall. Pictures will fade but sculptures will last longer.

I am not of importance that I would begin to think people will remember me after my earthly life ends. Of course, loved ones and relatives would, and maybe a few of my closer friends. And for most of us, up even 99% of the population, we generally cease to exist after the fourth, or even the third generation. You try it, … I have written it before here, … just to elucidate – name your four grandparents, then name your eight great-grandparents. Very few can. We forget.

We still have pictures of Jose Rizal and most of our past heroes. No, not pictures, but most of them are sketches. Even past presidents. But we live in an era that it is already possible to save actual photos, nay, even videos, of ourselves for the future generation. Lucky us. But what will they remember? Only our faces and how we look like? Maybe a little more with the videos. Still, the Bible reminds us, “No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.” (Ecclesiastes 1:11)

Pictures and monuments are indicative of our sinful nature. A man generally thinks more of himself than of others, and more highly at that. Certainly, more of ourselves than God on any given day. Give me a yearbook of our graduating class, either high school or college, and I will immediately look for “my” picture. We get engrossed in ourselves, and we forget what the Bible said in Isaiah 40:6b - “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.” Verse 8 concludes: “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

There are billions of people living in the world today…billions lived in the past, and, unless Jesus returns sooner, billions will still live in the future. Still, we treasure our own pictures because these are us…they represent our being. Certainly nothing may be inherently wrong with that unless we start thinking we’re better than others or worse, better than God! God commanded us the opposite: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;” (Philippians 2:3)

Man will always strive to leave a legacy for himself --that is inherently human nature. But the biggest and most precious legacy we can ever leave is to live a life surrendered to God which is pleasing to him. Serving others would be the next best thing.