Loved.
Do you know what that feels like? To be safe and secure, to snuggle up in the strong arms of your hero?
Surely every girl has dreamed of being carried in the arms of a prince. My picture today tells a love story. Compared to this story, Hollywood and co. can pack their bags!
The hero of the story is also a prince. However, he is not just the prince of a single country, nor is he the heir to the throne of all countries together. No, our prince is the king of the universe! Not only does he rule over the universe, but he also created the endless expanses of the universe with his own hand. Even our little earth is an expression of his boundless creativity, his sense of beauty, his humor and his love of laws and structure. Unfortunately, many of these wonders have been buried by evil today, but we can still recognize enough to see the genius of the Creator behind them.
Our hero created this earth so beautifully for one reason only: he wanted to give us humans, the crown of his creativity and creative power, a gift. He wanted us to enjoy this planet and learn to love him, our Creator, through it.
Our hero created people because he had a deep longing for a counterpart in his heart. He wanted to have someone by his side who was like him. He therefore created man in his own image - beautiful, strong, healthy, full of happiness and joy, wise, creative, loving and so much more besides!
The problem with free will
But when we look around us today, does the picture look any different? We have a destroyed planet on which broken people live.
I cannot go into the origin of all suffering and evil at this point. I can only say this much: God created man with free will. His deepest longing is for people to love and worship him of their own free will. To ensure this, he had to give them the choice. This also gave people the opportunity to decide against God and thus against the good, beautiful and perfect and in favor of evil, destruction and death. Unfortunately, our first parents chose the latter. This is how death, suffering, illness and injustice found their way into the world that God had perfectly created. Peace and joy were driven out by war and suffering.
So what does God do when he sees that the beings he has chosen as his family turn their backs on him and become his bitterest enemies? After all, he is God and could destroy people and the beautiful planet Earth in one fell swoop without batting an eyelid. It would then be as if we had never been here. God could have started all over again without any problems.
But for him, people are not simply objects that can be replaced by another object of equal value at any time. God has created each person uniquely. He has thought very carefully about how he designs each of us and what gifts and talents he wants to give us. Every person is unique and infinitely valuable in God's eyes.
We humans are so precious to God that he spared no expense to get us back. The great adversary of God has successfully alienated mankind from God. When Adam and Eve decided to believe the serpent over God, they became slaves to Satan. The earth thus fell under his dominion. Yet humans were God's children and the earth was to be administered by humans for God. So Satan stole what rightfully belonged to God.
God's heroic deed
What did God do now? In films or books, the prince would now set out and use force to free his beloved princess from the dragon's hand. On horseback and with his sword drawn, he would confront his adversary.
The King of the Universe chose a different path. He left his throne from which he ruled the entire universe. He became a tiny embryo in the womb of a poor young woman. He was born as a helpless baby in a stable. He grew up in poor circumstances and spent the first 30 years of his life working as a simple carpenter. His plan was to familiarize himself with the struggles and everyday worries of people. He wanted to know what it was like to be bullied by others as a child, even by his own siblings. He wanted to know what it was like to do a simple job to earn a living for his family. For 30 years, Jesus and his family experienced all the ups and downs of human life.
But Jesus didn't just come to earth to know how our lives feel. He came to free us from all the suffering and misery. In order to achieve this, he had to pay the debt that we all owe and remain blameless himself in the process. This means that Jesus was exposed to all the temptations that we also have to struggle with. But unlike us, he could not allow himself a single misstep. He had to remain faultless in everything.
He not only led a sinless life, but his great goal was to pay the price for sin, which is rebellion against God. And this price is death (see Romans 6:23).
Jesus voluntarily allowed himself to be captured, tortured and killed. He did not die a pleasant death. His death, the death on the cross, is one of the cruelest forms of killing. The physical pain can hardly be put into words. The nails alone, which fastened the body to the cross and constantly enlarged the wounds due to the weight of the body, must have been unspeakably painful. The actual death usually only occurred after three days through suffocation. But in Jesus' case, it was not the physical pain that killed him. It was the mental anguish. The most cheerful, beautiful, pure, holy and gentle being in the entire universe had to bear all the wickedness, lies, malice, pride and all the other evil deeds of all the people who have ever lived and will ever live. Jesus detested all that evil and yet he willingly took it all upon himself to free us from it. The sins of all mankind separated him from his beloved Father, with whom he had been one from eternity. For a holy God cannot dwell in the presence of a sinner. So Jesus' heart broke under the weight of my sins and yours. He died separated from his Father and abandoned by the people who were closest to him.
The lost sheep
Why did he do it again?
Because he loved what he had lost so much that no price was too high for him to win it back. Even his own life, even his intimate fellowship with God, was not enough for him as long as YOU were lost!
God would have had many other worlds where beings could have worshipped and loved him. But all these other worlds, all the angels in the universe, could not fill the gap in God's heart that our little lost world had torn.
That is why Jesus left the universe and came to our insignificant planet to seek what was lost.
Dear reader, he came for you personally! Do you realize that if YOU were the only person on this earth who had run away from God, that Jesus would have done all this just for YOU, to save you?
Jesus tells this story in his parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:4-7:
"What man is there among you who has a hundred sheep and, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the one he has lost until he finds it?And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders with joy. And when he comes home, he calls his friends and neighbors and says to them: 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance."
Are you aware that you are this one little sheep? Jesus left 99 other sheep, spared no effort, agony and nerves to find YOU?
Do you know how much God and all of heaven rejoice over a person who lets God find them?
For me, this is the greatest love story of all time! Where is there a greater love than that which a selfless God has for a selfish and proud humanity?
The creation of the picture
This is the background to today's picture. I painted it for a friend. She was one of those lost sheep. This world has inflicted deep wounds on her. She no longer saw any hope for herself. But there was one who saw in her the potential he had placed in her. So he led her to us and I was allowed to study the Bible with her. What a privilege it is to be able to accompany people on their path to God. There is no greater joy than when you see how God begins to heal a person and how life slowly changes for the better.
This friend was the first person I was allowed to accompany to baptism. I had been praying for this experience for years.
When I was looking for a christening gift, I came across the text "He left the 99 to save me". I thought the text was very fitting for my friend. The motif for the picture was also quickly found. Jesus, beaming with joy, carrying his little lost sheep in his arms.
I have loved sheep since I was young. Ever since I witnessed the birth of two lambs, I have fallen in love with these animals. The newborn lambs are still so weak and helpless. They seem so tender and fragile. That's exactly how God looks at us. He sees how delicate, fragile and helpless we are. So he cares for us with all his love and protects us with all his strength.
I painted the picture on A4 acrylic cardboard with acrylic paints. It had to be a simple picture, because once again I didn't have much time. So before I started painting, I prayed that God would guide my brush. I said to God: "You have to paint for me, because you know I don't have time!". It's amazing that God answers those prayers! I like to avoid painting people. I find faces difficult and hands too. That's why I avoid motifs where they appear. But I couldn't avoid this one. I've also never really painted a sheep before and I didn't know how best to do it. But with prayer, I set to work. It was the same experience that I had already had when painting the Wide and narrow path had made. The picture almost painted itself. I didn't have to make many corrections. The brush knew exactly what to do. The painting was finished within two evenings - just in time for the christening!
Before I gave it away, I scanned the picture. I edited it a little with Procreate and changed the font. I can now create the picture in different languages. I had it printed in German as an A4 poster. It is now available in my online store! Next up is a bookmark with the same motif.
Here you can see the unedited image with the original, hand-painted lettering:
What is it with you, little sheep?
Finally, I would like to ask you, dear reader, whether you have also had this experience of the picture? Have you been lost and let Jesus find you? If so, then stay in his love!
If you are still the little sheep that has strayed from the flock and is wandering lonely and hurt through this dangerous world, then I have good news for you! Jesus is looking for YOU! He has left the 99 other sheep behind just to find you! He is very close to you and ready to pull you out of your mess, no matter how deep you are in it and how you got into it!
You can say a simple prayer:
"Dear Father, thank you for leaving the 99 other sheep to find me. Thank you that I am so precious and valuable in your eyes that no price is too high for you to save me. You see, I am stuck deep in the mud of sin. Life has wounded me. I need your help and your healing! Please forgive my sin and give me your new life. Please come into my life. I give you my whole heart with all my secret, dark sides. Please make it new, pure and holy. I thank you that you have accepted me as I am and that you will change and heal my life from today onwards. In the name of Jesus, Amen!"
May God bless you abundantly!
Here is the "beautiful", revised version! 🙂
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I think the unedited original is even more beautiful 😍 and a great idea for the christening!
Oh, thanks for the feedback! I find that very exciting! Now I've also noticed that I wrote "save" instead of "find" in print!