Welcome to Sophie's Nature Art!

(Note: This post briefly interrupts my explanation from the wide and narrow path)

Hope!

Especially in times like these, when the world seems to be falling apart at the seams, we need them all the more. Inflation, economic crisis, political powerlessness, environmental disasters and wars are worrying people. Added to this are broken families and identity crises. No wonder the number of mental illnesses is on the rise. Especially since the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of people suffering from depression.

It seems as if there is hardly any hope left in this world. No one knows how the political and economic situation will develop. It has become difficult to plan for the next few years. Everything seems uncertain. The prospects for the future are bleak.
That's the sentiment I hear every day when I talk to my patients. Older people in particular are glad that they are so old. They worry about their grandchildren and what they can expect in the future.

I have also experienced one or two times of crisis in my life. There were moments when I was on the verge of giving up hope. But there was something that gave me the strength to carry on. There was a hope that kept me going.

We can read about it in the Bible, in Hebrews 6:19 read:

We hold on to this [hope] as a secure and firm anchor of the soul, which also reaches inside, behind the curtain.

The creation of the picture

Over the last few weeks, I've been doodling a lot on my iPad with Procreate, a digital drawing program. It's a great thing because you can lie comfortably on the couch and still work on a piece of art. As I've been a bit exhausted over the last few weeks, this was perfect for me. I've been working on a digital painting for a while now. But this week was the birthday of my older brother and also one of my dearest friends. I had been thinking about how I could send them birthday greetings. My brother lives in the Czech Republic and my friend lives in Bavaria. My brother and I send each other digital cards every year. So I decided to draw one for him. The motif was quickly found: an anchor. I found a nice reference on pinterest. The matching Bible text was also immediately buzzing around in my head. So I set to work. I spent three or four evenings working on the picture, but it was finished just one day before my brother's birthday. So he could receive it on time.

My friend's birthday was two days later. I used the same motif and changed the text to „God's blessing for your birthday“. We still send each other real cards, wonderfully old-fashioned. So I printed out the picture and turned it into a beautiful card. As always a little too late, it was then sent by post on its long journey to the south of Germany.

Painting this card was like therapy for me. The Bible text reminded me that I don't have to give life's challenges any power over me, because my source of strength is anchored in heaven.

The anchor

An anchor is a great thing. I like to volunteer for the anchor watch on my sailing trips. I find that very exciting. You check every half hour whether the anchor is still holding and in the right position. You also take a bearing on where you are in order to observe the ship's rotation. All of this is noted down in a book provided for this purpose.

If the anchor holds properly, the ship is safe. No one needs to be afraid that the ship will drift away and perhaps be shipwrecked.

There is also such an anchor for our soul. I have the impression that many souls, like a ship, are simply driven aimlessly back and forth by the waves and the current. They have no foothold or destination in life. At some point, they will be wrecked on the cliffs of hopelessness. But God offers our soul a firm foothold. Especially in these times, we can make particular use of this support so that we do not give up discouraged.

The anchor of the soul is hope.

Disappointed hopes

But what can our souls hope for? Many hopes are dashed against the jagged rocks of this world's reality. Many hope for a happy relationship and to finally find the partner of their dreams. But hope often turns out to be a fallacy. Many hope for a well-paid job. But how quickly this can be gone or the money earned loses value. Others hope to be made happy by a relationship or their family. Unfortunately, they don't get what they want from their loved ones, no matter how much they invest in them.

Many people have been disappointed in their hopes so often that they no longer dare to hope for fear of being disappointed again.
What hope cannot be disappointed? What kind of hope does God offer us?

We find the answer in the verse we have just read. It says that the anchor of hope reaches inside, behind the curtain. That sounds a bit strange, doesn't it?

Let's find out what is meant by the “inside“. It helps to read the following verse (Hebrews 6:20) is still reading:

where Jesus entered as a forerunner for us, who became high priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedek. 

Here we read that Jesus has gone behind the curtain, into the inner room. So Jesus is in this place, the inner room. We also learn that he has become the high priest for eternity. That helps us a little further. The high priest has something to do with the temple and serving God.

The sanctuary

Let's take a closer look at this!

God had given Moses a special task. After he had freed the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery and led them into the desert, he was to build a sanctuary for God there in the desert. God wanted to dwell in the midst of his people. He gave Moses very detailed instructions on what this should look like. For this sanctuary was to be built in the image of the heavenly sanctuary. Yes, it was even to be an image, i.e. a model for the original in heaven (see. Exodus 25:8+9).

The sanctuary consisted of three parts. It had a forecourt in which there was an altar for burnt offerings and a large washbasin. After that, there was a tent that was divided into two more sections. The front part of the tent was called the „Holy Place“. Here there was a seven-branched candlestick, a table of showbread with fresh bread and an altar of incense. The latter stood directly in front of a curtain that separated the „Holy Place“ from the „Holy of Holies“. Only priests were allowed to enter the „Holy Place“. The high priest was only allowed into the Holy of Holies once a year. The Ark of the Covenant was located there. It contained the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna and a flowering staff from Aaron. Above the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat, which was overshadowed by two angels.

The cleansing of the shrine

This is where our secret is revealed as to what is meant by the inside, behind the curtain. The „Holy of Holies“ is a symbol for the throne room of God. The Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat is the symbol for the throne of God. The Ten Commandments, which are in the Ark of the Covenant, are the basis of God's government. This is where God is. From here he rules the universe. In the text in Hebrews we read that Jesus went in there as our high priest. The high priest was the representative of God's people. Once a year, the Great Day of Atonement took place. On this day, the sanctuary was cleansed of the sins of the people. Every day, the people brought their sins into the sanctuary by offering a sacrificial animal. This symbolically transferred the sinner's guilt to the shrine. Over the course of the year, all the sins of the people accumulated there, figuratively speaking. The shrine therefore also needed to be cleansed. On this annual occasion, the high priest went into the „Holy of Holies“ with the blood of a sacrificial animal and sprinkled the curtain and the Ark of the Covenant with the blood. This cleansed the sanctuary of the sins of the people. These sins were then transferred to a previously chosen goat, which was literally sent into the desert (which is also where the saying about sending someone into the desert comes from).

However, all these symbols and services in the sanctuary are only a type, i.e. a model, for the ministry of Jesus. To explain all of this would go beyond the scope of this article.

The ministry of Jesus behind the curtain

Jesus came into this world to die as a sacrificial lamb for our sins. He is therefore the sacrifice that was offered daily in the temple. As sinners, we can transfer our guilt to Jesus, who has already paid it for us, through our confession of sin. Through his blood, Jesus cleanses us from our guilt. In return, it is first transferred to the true sanctuary, which is in heaven. The sins of all mankind have been piling up there for more than 6,000 years. But we have read that our anchor of hope reaches inside, behind the curtain, i.e. into the Holy of Holies. There we find the only true hope.

The Great Day of Atonement took place once a year. The high priest went behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the sacrificial animal to cleanse it of sins.

Jesus became the high priest for us. But he does not need the blood of an innocent animal. For he himself is the sacrificial animal. He is both sacrifice and high priest. So he enters the heavenly throne room with his own blood and comes before the Father. There he does two things. Firstly, he is our representative and advocate. He represents us and our concerns before God. Secondly, he cleanses the sanctuary of our sins and will ensure that they fall back on Satan, who caused them. Here we have arrived at our anchor of hope.

The anchor of hope

Our hope lies in the fact that Jesus himself took our guilt upon himself by shedding his blood for us. Through his blood, he can cleanse us from our sins and obtain forgiveness and a new life for us before God. But our sin, although forgiven, still exists. It is stored in the heavenly sanctuary. It may even fall back on us if we turn away from God. That is why our only hope is in our High Priest. If you study the prophetic time chains in the book of Daniel, you will find that the longest time chain has to do with the cleansing of the sanctuary (S. Daniel 8:14). This time chain ends in the year 1844 (If you would like to know more about this, please contact me.) It can therefore be concluded that Jesus went behind the curtain, into the Holy of Holies, in 1844. The Great Day of Atonement has been taking place since this year. This means that every single person who has ever lived is tested once again before God. They are examined to see whether they have claimed Jesus' sacrificial death for themselves and allowed themselves to be cleansed of their sins. If this is the case, then he will live forever. All his sins are erased from the book of life. It is as if he had never committed them. If a person did not want to accept the offer, then he will be eternally dead. Every case is decided either for life or death. At some point, all the dead will be judged. Then it will be the turn of the living. Our fates will also be decided. But everyone will be given enough opportunities beforehand to make the right decision. When everyone has decided for or against God, the purification process will be over. Either people will bear their own guilt or it will be imposed on Satan, the scapegoat. When all this is over, Jesus will come again and take us home.

Welcome home!

Jesus is coming to take us home, into the Holy of Holies! In Hebrews 6:20 we read that Jesus went behind the curtain as our forerunner. He has prepared the way for us so that we can be where he is. This place is our home. It is a place where justice, love, gentleness and conviviality reign. It is the place that everyone here on this earth longs for, but will never find here. There will be no more existential fears, no more pain, no more broken hearts, no more war and no more death. We may be heirs of God and thus we ourselves will sit on the throne and reign together with Jesus.

The best thing will be that all our mistakes and sins will have disappeared. No one will think about my weaknesses and failures anymore. I myself will also have forgotten all that. How often I suffer from my own shortcomings here on this earth. But there in heaven, all that will be a thing of the past. It will be a place of the purest joy and the highest happiness.

My personal anchor of hope

That is my firm and secure anchor. Because I know that Jesus has walked this path before me and has prepared it for me, I can follow him with confidence. Here in this world, the path is often associated with hardship, pain and death. But all that is nothing compared to the wonderful things that Jesus is preparing for me right now!

Jesus suffered infinite agony and humbled himself deeply to make eternal joy and peace possible for me. His boundless and, above all, constant love and devotion for me is my safe anchor.

When I think about how much he has given up for me to give me a better life, it is easier for me to let go of this world here in order to gain what he offers me. I no longer have to experience everything in this world, because I know that this world can't offer me anything that makes me truly happy.

My hope for a life without guilt and sin as a king's daughter already gives me peace and tranquillity in this life. The more I occupy myself with God and his glorious nature, the more I fall in love with him. And the more worthless all the things that this world wants to offer me here seem to me. My heart longs to arrive where my hope is already anchored: at the side of my wonderful God and Savior Jesus Christ! He has walked the path before me so that I too can find it and walk it.

There is hope beyond this life and this world. Let this world collapse like a house of cards! I know that my anchor holds in the Holy of Holies, where someone stands up for me who has given everything so that I can soon be with him.

Where is your hope anchored? Will your anchor hold, even if the world collapses on top of you?