I found 2019 to be a tumultuous year but 2020 has far surpassed with a world-wide pandemic, an increasingly polarized political climate, racial injustice leading to protests and riots, refugees continuing their flight in search of safety, natural disasters raging, explosions killing and fires surrounding parts of the world. Clearly these are tumultuous times but I’ve also found these times strangely hopeful. Months before the pandemic, God had slowed my life to a more simple, quiet pace, yet, internally intensity rose as I watched the unfurling of catastrophe and disorder. The pandemic’s influence of breathing fear, anxiety and confusion exacerbated issues in my relationships that maybe weren’t all that bad but the undoing exposed unhealed wounds, widened divisions and demanded the choice of embracing love or fear. During this time, I’ve realized the choice we make largely depends on how we choose to use our eyes, ears and mouths.
God gave us eyes to see.
God gave us ears to hear.
God gave us mouths to speak and divine wisdom when not to.
2020 brought relational dynamics where my voice has been silenced, where the other has demanded that he be in total control and that I be invisible. I’ve felt intensely unseen and unheard and I see this happening at every level in the list of crises mentioned above of which our world is navigating and I can’t help but grieve the damage we do to one another when we misuse the God-given crevices in our heads. When one refuses to see and listen to another, it is nothing short of dehumanizing. In all this unrest, confusion and uncertainly, art has been my sanctuary in this middle space - the space between suffering and redemption - that space of knowing God’s truths and yet struggling to see from His perspective - the space of feeling anger toward he one who scarred me yet choosing to love my enemies and pray for one’s who hurt me. Processing through these issues in the context of art deepened my empathy for those who experience this pain on a much grander scale. The voices that have been silenced for centuries: women’s voices, minorities voices, abused partner’s voices, children’s voices . . . Not only did this process help me work through the pain of my recent experience and helped me feel empathy but it also brought conviction of the times I’ve failed to truly see another - to see their value, their God-given beauty despite their sin and flaws or pain they’ve inflicted on me. I’m convicted of the times I’ve been unable or unwilling to truly hear them, of the times my words have been gravel rather than the balm of grace, hope and love.
In my art called, The Embrace, I tried to describe through picture of what happens to us when we loose sight, when we are deaf and unwise or unkind with our tongue. The base layer is made of cut up faces of various skin colors and nationalities. The eyes, ears and mouths are dissembled from God’s original design. Sections of the faces are misfitted with other person’s parts that don’t match or make sense. When we refuse to truly see another or to hear from a heart level and speak from a place of love I believe we,
become disillusioned
disfigure one another
create new divisions and expand those that already exist
And we become deceived and thus confusion and despair readily awaits at our doorstep.
For the second layer I whitewashed the disfigured face layer representing the fog that encompasses us when we become deceived and the white layer also represents the skin color God gave me. I am a white woman which means I often view life from an American white female lens but God created all shades of skin and every eye, ear and tongue. Every person is worthy to be seen, heard and embraced. More importantly, it’s ultimately Christ’s lens I must peer through, His Spirit’s whispers that I must lean into and His Words that I must digest in order to speak life, hope and love to myself and others. Maybe I have white skin but I pray that my allegiance is to Christ alone and not to a color or ideology or a nation’s borders or a political party.
The third and final layer is intended to represent the powerful, unashamed EMBRACE - Christ embraces us fully, unconditionally and whole-heartedly. When I accept and receive His divine embrace, only then, am I able to embrace others fully, unconditionally and whole-heartedly . . . While I know this to be true, I’m not there yet in some of the cracks in my heart but I am reminded that unless I cling to Him, I cannot truly see, deeply hear, or speak sincere words of love and life to those around me.
May I, may we, be the Body who receives His embrace and clings to Him. Then, may we, fearlessly embrace others from all walks, all cities, all nations. This is possible when we truly believe that, “He who is in us, is Greater than he who is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4). May we trust that He will not abandon us in the middle space (Heb. 13:5) and that He is redeeming all things, even when we can’t yet see the fullness of that redemption (Pro. 17:22a, Heb. 12:2). By faith, may we choose to Embrace His Love and in turn, embrace others.