I found this photograph on my phone the other day. It was taken in Jerusalem. The little ‘block’ like things at the bottom of the picture are hundreds of tombs. It got me thinking about a painting I did a while back. It’s not a good painting, really, I’m not being modest. But it’s special to me because it carries a message I have needed to hear a lot recently. I read this ancient prayer somewhere a few months back and it really stuck with me, so I decided to paint it.
The text says:
BLESSED ARE YOU
KING OF THE UNIVERSE
IN YOU
THE DEAD HAVE
L I F E
So when I found this prayer I had been struggling with this inner turmoil, because there was something I just couldn’t let go of although I knew with all my heart I should. Like an addiction, I just kept going into this territory even though I knew it wasn’t wise or healthy to go into.
And I started to feel guilty. And useless. And eventually, I was bordering on hopeless. And then I read these words.
In GOD (the Creator) the dead, have life.
Now that is a huge statement.
There may be areas in our lives (in our soul, our mind, our body, our past…) that feel tainted by death, or that feel like they are dead never to rise again…hopeless. In GOD, these areas can have life once more, because in God, the dead can have life.
So looking at this picture of the many tombs on the hill in Jerusalem, sun sinking behind them, I remember that, although the sun will set and the night will be dark, the following morning the sun will be shining over those tombs again. And the next day the same, and the next day the same. And so we can hold onto the hope that the areas in our lives that we have basically buried because they are as good as dead, are not hidden from the light of the sun and are not beyond GOD’s rays (arms) of LIFE.
God, who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which are not as though they were.
(Romans 4 v 17)
For his anger endures but for a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
(Psalm 30 v 5)
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34 v 4)
Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.
(Psalm 103 v 4)
I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, save me!”
(Psalm 116 v 1 – 4)
When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
(Mark 5 v 38 – 42)