But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
This piece began with the image of an ancient vessel in the color of pale aqua sea glass. I saw cracks spidering out threatening to shatter the vase but were quickly repaired with gold in the Japanese art form of Kintsugi that repairs broken pottery with gold as the breakage is treated as part of the beauty of an object, rather than something to disguise. At this point the thought of "covenant" spoke to me and I envisioned a rolled scroll held tight with a loop rather than a knot and stored inside the vessel. As water began to fill the vessel I saw one drop Christ's blood mixing in with it and creating wine.
Curiosity as to what was emerging on the canvas began to take hold and in my physical self I saw this work representing ourselves as the precious glass vessel into which the ancient scroll, wrapped up like faith, became a part of us even though we have been cracked yet not broken, healed and more beautiful.
The background was to be blue with white and wrapping the vase. What I saw was the Jewish prayer robe as described in Numbers 15, a Tallit, and in its four corners the Tzitzit to be a constant reminder to the Jews to be a distinct people, set apart for service to the one true God.
I saw purple at the base of the vessel. Violets. Violets in the desert? And I could not find any reference in scripture to violets. But violets there shall be.
Plot Twist!
I had assumed I was creating either a Phoenician or an Canaanite vase but no! This is actually a priceless Roman cinerary funeral jar used in storing the ashes of two, presumably for a husband and his wife. Whoa !
So whats going on here Lord? So far we have the husband and wife, Adam & Eve possibly, to be stored as ash in a Roman jar, made by the same people who killed Jesus, holding a covenant from God. Even though the jar was cracked, it is now a functioning vessel, no longer used for death, the cracks have been sealed with the Blood of Christ mixing in with the contents defeating death. And it is all wrapped up with a ritual prayer shawl beginning with a young man's bar mitzvah to his final blessing when the shawl is wrapped around his body at burial. And then there is the tzitzit. The Book of Matthew describes the healing that took place when a woman reached out to touch the hem of Yeshua’s garment, which was Yeshua’s tzitzit.
Wait! What about the violets? In flower speak, wild violets traditionally represent loyalty, devotion and faithfulness and they grow beautifully in the shade of the tree. They are as a representation of God speaking to Moses in Exodus 20 of His covenant, the ten commandments, demanding loyalty, devotion and faithfulness.
And the violets will adorn His bride, being intertwined with the tzitzit, whose purpose is the exultation of God and His commandments, not the exultation of oneself and one’s observance, as the New Jerusalem.
And the scroll... Hebrews 8:7-13 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The folds in the prayer cloth... It is time for the Jewish Community to take their place with Christ.
John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
And then I heard the song "Tale as old as time. True as it can be. Barely even friends. Then somebody bends. Unexpectedly..."
Thank you Jesus.
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