Self-Portrait...
Still thinking about art and artists, what type of people they are the "inside". I like deep and artists appeal to me for this reason. I think I know very well what I look on the inside, and it doesn't "feel" like what I look like on the outside.
What if I could paint a portrait of myself the way God sees me? To reflect what I really look like. This outside skin will be gone in a moment, isn't life but a breathe? All flesh is grass, fading away but the inner man (woman) is what will last.
How would my life be different, if I covered every mirror in my house with a self-portrait that God painted? (I would choose His image of myself over my own...even my own interpretation of Erica is flawed).
What if I couldn't even see the outside skin that is so covered with judgement?
I think that's what Jesus was like.
At every moment He knew what He looked like...REALLY looked like. The image he had of Himself was the one that He saw in His dad's eyes. The Bible even says in Isaiah 53 that Jesus wasn't handsome--- (Isaiah 53:2) "For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him"---but I don't remember one word written in red mentioning it. Did Jesus even notice? Did He even care about His outward appearance or how people responded to Him because of it?
We have an entire culture basing identity on physical appearance. How thin you are. How big is your nose? Are you really blonde? (no, btw). I don't want to buy into that, but its really hard to fight. I want to know who I really am, to know my identity as God sees me and let that be my self-portrait. I want to wear it like Jesus did and be so unaware of my physical faults that I never even mention them.
When someone dies in the Jewish culture, they cover all the mirrors with black clothes for these reasons:
1. During shiva, a mourner is striving to ignore his/her own physicality and vanity in order to concentrate on the reality of being a soul.
2. A mirror represents social acceptance through the enhancement of one's appearance. Jewish mourning is supposed to be lonely, silent; dwelling on one's personal loss. Covering the mirrors symbolizes this withdrawal from society's gaze.
3. Prayer services, commonly held in the shiva house, cannot take place in front of a mirror. When we pray, we focus on God and not on ourselves.
I could sit shiva for my physical appearance, and mourn the loss the physical appearance I am comfortable with and have come to depend upon. I could cover my vanity in black cloth and withdraw from society's gaze.
What would I look like when I came to back to the land of the living cloaked in the image God has created for me? What will it be like when I wear the self-portrait He has painted?
Would I look a little more like Jesus?
Still thinking about art and artists, what type of people they are the "inside". I like deep and artists appeal to me for this reason. I think I know very well what I look on the inside, and it doesn't "feel" like what I look like on the outside.
What if I could paint a portrait of myself the way God sees me? To reflect what I really look like. This outside skin will be gone in a moment, isn't life but a breathe? All flesh is grass, fading away but the inner man (woman) is what will last.
How would my life be different, if I covered every mirror in my house with a self-portrait that God painted? (I would choose His image of myself over my own...even my own interpretation of Erica is flawed).
What if I couldn't even see the outside skin that is so covered with judgement?
I think that's what Jesus was like.
At every moment He knew what He looked like...REALLY looked like. The image he had of Himself was the one that He saw in His dad's eyes. The Bible even says in Isaiah 53 that Jesus wasn't handsome--- (Isaiah 53:2) "For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him"---but I don't remember one word written in red mentioning it. Did Jesus even notice? Did He even care about His outward appearance or how people responded to Him because of it?
We have an entire culture basing identity on physical appearance. How thin you are. How big is your nose? Are you really blonde? (no, btw). I don't want to buy into that, but its really hard to fight. I want to know who I really am, to know my identity as God sees me and let that be my self-portrait. I want to wear it like Jesus did and be so unaware of my physical faults that I never even mention them.
When someone dies in the Jewish culture, they cover all the mirrors with black clothes for these reasons:
1. During shiva, a mourner is striving to ignore his/her own physicality and vanity in order to concentrate on the reality of being a soul.
2. A mirror represents social acceptance through the enhancement of one's appearance. Jewish mourning is supposed to be lonely, silent; dwelling on one's personal loss. Covering the mirrors symbolizes this withdrawal from society's gaze.
3. Prayer services, commonly held in the shiva house, cannot take place in front of a mirror. When we pray, we focus on God and not on ourselves.
I could sit shiva for my physical appearance, and mourn the loss the physical appearance I am comfortable with and have come to depend upon. I could cover my vanity in black cloth and withdraw from society's gaze.
What would I look like when I came to back to the land of the living cloaked in the image God has created for me? What will it be like when I wear the self-portrait He has painted?
Would I look a little more like Jesus?
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