Verse:
“He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.”
Thought:
Monet organizes short rigid strokes, computer graphic artists manipulate them
to create optical illusions and 3-D pieces of magic and ancient artists used broke pottery
shards to capture them. Images. Taken in through our eyes and processed through our minds,
images tell the story we are willing to see and understand. When I look at the magic eye
posters, I am amazed as to how exactly they work. Creative use of collages combine individual
pictures to paint or create a larger, more global image. And even mosaics remind us there was a
picture or image waiting to come forth from another's mind. Images do tell a story, for each
of us, you and me. And when we look at the many images of Christ, what images do we see? How
is it we allow the images of Christ we encounter to shape our global understanding of The Christ?
Hear the Good News, Christ seeks us out, meet us, transforms us and then sends us out, all of
us, because of who we are. There are many images of Christ, that of teacher, preacher, healer,
transformer, the resurrected, one who loves, who lives and calls us to serve, just to name a
few. There are other, less comfortable images of Christ as well, radical, revolutionary
and the crucified. It is because of the many images of Christ that we are able to be met where
we are and as we are. Yet, many times we fail to truly recognize the real image of Christ,
relying on the comfortable images we can grasp. It is important, no, paramount we understand
Christ and see Christ in His totality, because this is where we find and receive our
healing. Great crowds assembled to encounter Christ, to be changed by him, to experience Him
as who He was and is. He sought out the broken and transformed them. The Blind, the Lame and
the Diseased, cured by Christ, by the encounter. Those with broken spirits and
possessed, renewed by the encounter. The woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery,
restored by the encounter. Faith made the encounter possible. Grace, the power of God through
Christ, changed and transformed them, and does the same for us. The Great Physician renewed
and restored the broken. We must see Christ for who He truly is, not focusing on one shard
of truth or brush stroke of experience, but Christ in totality. This is how
experience the life changing encounter with the Christ. A work of art, an indelible image,
The Great Physician.
Prayer:
Gracious God, I have seen You activity in the world and in my life, yet often times I fail to see Your work in areas that may be an inconvienence. Touch my heart and help me to be open to the image of Christ everywhere. Help me to share my image of my Savior with other. Thank You for all You have done in my life and all You will continue to do, for I come to You through Jesus Christ, my Lord, my Savior! Amen.
Grace & Peace
David Banks
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