As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. (John 15:9)
WITH HER BELOVED GRANDPA having just been placed in hospice, her parents sat the young teen down to explain the inevitability of his passing as gently as they could. In the hours following the talk, she retreated to her room to cry several times, but she hadn’t offered her parents the kind of verbal response that would help them understand how she was coming to grips with the sad news.
After an extended time alone in her room, the artistic young woman emerged with a freshly painted portrait that summed up all she was feeling. There in the portrait sat her grandpa, as she knew him best, joyfully holding his precious young granddaughter on his knee. Their daughter’s expression confirmed to her parents that she would be OK. A week later, when her grandpa passed away, the painting was brought out at the funeral and became for the entire family a visual summary of his life. They would all remember him as a man consumed by love for his family.
More than any other New Testament writer, the apostle John was consumed with expressing the revelation of God’s love. Jesus became the visible picture of that love. If all history and theology could be summed up in one simple portrait, in it we would see our God sitting joyfully with you and me upon His knee.
Remember that Jesus is the most accurate expression of who God is.
Bill Beck lives in the Black Hills with his wife, daughter, and dog. He and his wife have two grown sons.
