Life is full of choices.  George Strait once said “Life’s not the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.”  I believe this is one thing that people have forgotten about.  Everyone is so self-centered and doesn’t think about what matters anymore.  Jim Denomie does a wonderful job in the painting “The Vatican Cafe” illustrating how the world is busy.  This painting made me stop and think about what matters and what doesn’t matter in my life.

When I look into this painting I see the world today and a few things that have shaped it.  There are seven people sitting at a counter and one waitress serving them.  The two people on the far left look very homely and are both naked, Adam and Eve.  On the table in front of them is a cup and saucer along with a bowl of soup.  There is a reverend in his uniform with his pants around his ankles sitting next to, Jesus, who is in the middle of the table wearing a robe.  The reverend has 3 bananas in front of him.  There is a fish on the table in front of Jesus, the Holy Grail in one hand, and a fork in the other.  On the right side of Jesus is the Lone Ranger in a cowboy hat and his side-kick Tonto who also appears naked.  The Lone Ranger is playing three cards of bingo and the Indian is asking what he should eat.  Lastly, sitting on the far right of the table is Elvis Presley in his white performing outfit; he is looking into a cell phone and taking a picture of himself, he has a doughnut and a gun on the table in front of him.  There is also an owl sitting next to Elvis on the window sill, looking for food like an eagle.  Nobody is looking at Jesus with awe, they are all focused on things that don’t matter.  Instead of having their breath taken away by something amazing, they are focused on themselves.

The door of the cafe says “Vatican Cafe” on the outside.  Inside the cafe is an array of beautiful colors that shout out at you.  The floor is made of colorful tiles.  The cafe has two large windows in the back and a door in-between them.  Looking through the windows I can see a few things that have impacted the world throughout the last few hundred years.  In the left window there is a witch being burned at the stake with people watching, an observatory looking at Saturn, and there is a tornado in the very back.  In the right window the KKK is looking at the cross of Jesus Christ, an atom bomb going off in the back, and a tank representing the wars on Earth.  The sky is purple and pink all the way across the horizon in both windows.

The world has changed dramatically since Jesus was walking around in sandals.  Back then I don’t think God believed everybody would one day be walking around with computers in their pockets and have countries with weapons of mass destruction.  Things like these are what distract everyone from religion, family, and love.  The painting was as busy as a freeway during rush hour.  

When I first looked at it, I saw Jesus sitting at a table with accidental things surrounding him.  It felt as though the artist knew he wanted to include Jesus and then didn’t know where to go from there.  But as I continued to look at it, I began to see things in a different way.  It looked like an abstract painting that needs deciphering.  The painting shows how the world today is so self-centered.  Jesus died on the cross forgiving my sins, but how many times do I thank him for it?  The world has wars, natural disasters, and people being murdered but most of the time I don’t pray for peace, I just hope it happens.  If Jesus walked into a restaurant and sat down to eat, would I even notice it was him?  Would I offer to buy his meal for him?  I like thinking I would, but I know the truth, I probably wouldn’t.  The picture was blurry at first but became more clear as time raced by. 

Somehow we got confused and thought God wanted us to conquer other people in the name of Christianity.  But that’s not what it is about, it’s about appreciating the things we have and enjoying every day of life.  There’s another country song by Thomas Rhett called “Beer with Jesus”.  It’s about sitting down with Jesus and asking him why he does some things and how we can be better.  If I ever got that opportunity, I would do it for sure.  Everybody in this picture is given the chance to do so, but not a single one of them does it.  They are all too distracted to ask or even notice just like our world today.  But if we all just take a few minutes out of each day and appreciate the littlest blessings then we can go back to the way God wants us to live.  The way humans are suppose to live.  Everyone in this painting would be looking at Jesus and listening to him instead of focusing on themselves.