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But love attracts all of them, die is the bond of perfection! 

- Colossians 3:14 

It was that time again. Mother's Day was just a few days away and, as I do every year, I thought about how I could show my appreciation for my mother on this day.
I had this heart canvas and thought that it might make something nice. Unfortunately, I can't remember how I came up with this Bible verse. I also don't know whether I first had the idea with the ribbon or the text. I think I was looking for a text about love in the Bible. Because a bigger project was already waiting in the back of my mind. Friends of mine were getting married in the fall and I was also looking for a suitable Bible verse and motif. 

Little did I know that this little Mother's Day gift would help me discover a whole new level of painting. 

Anyway, I now had the text and the idea: the Bible verse was to be painted on the canvas and a ribbon was to be painted around the heart. But how do you actually paint a ribbon like that? 

Once again, I was very grateful for YouTube. I rummaged around for a while. At some point I came across a video, by painting a dove with a ribbon in its beak. This tutorial was said to be suitable for beginners. I thought the motif was beautiful and so I gave it a try. You can see the result here: 

Actually, I was only interested in the ribbon. But I also found the dove very beautiful. Painting it was a completely new experience for me. I was thrilled with the result! It really wasn't that difficult! And above all, I now had an idea of how to paint a ribbon like this. So I finished the picture for my mother.

The video was produced by Angela Anderson recorded. She has a whole channel with really beautiful motifs, some of which I have painted and some of which I will introduce to you. 

But the motif with the dove and this Bible verse didn't let go of me. Doves are a frequently used symbol for love. So I thought, why not combine doves, ribbons and this Bible text? 

This led to the idea of painting a pair of doves holding a heart-shaped ribbon together. The Bible verse would be written on the canvas. 

So I grabbed a large canvas and started painting. The dove is a really easy motif, although it wasn't so easy to mirror the second dove. The heart band wasn't quite so easy either, but overall I was very pleased with the finished work.  

The bride and groom were also delighted with this gift. It has found a place in their bedroom. 

In the same fall, my grandparents celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. They had been married for 60 years and had experienced a lot during this time. Naturally, I wanted to make them happy with a picture. As the first picture with the doves seemed more and more imperfect as the months went by, I thought I would try again. I painted it on a slightly smaller canvas. But I'm a lot happier with this second attempt. My grandparents were delighted with this picture and it found a place in their well-stocked house. 

This Bible verse has a very special meaning for me. We humans tend to see the faults of others very quickly and criticize them. This often happens in an unloving, hurtful way. As I thought more deeply about this text, I realized that God is not like that. He is love, the Bible tells us.
We humans strive for perfection. Everything has to be even better, more beautiful and more amazing. But we will never achieve ultimate perfection.
But one is perfect - God. He makes no mistakes and he is also love. In his love we can find perfection, the ultimate perfection.
A bond has the task of holding things together. This is how the bond of love should connect people. God himself is this bond of love. When we make mistakes, he does not hold them against us forever. He paid the price on the cross so that we can be forgiven. When we recognize our mistakes and ask for Ask forgiveness, he erases them as if they had never been there. He simply forgets them.  

He wants to bind himself to us through the bond of love and he wants to bind us humans to each other through love. Those who are in love often see their loved one with rose-colored glasses and are literally blind to their character flaws.  

It's actually a shame that this situation doesn't last. What if we saw the other person's strengths rather than their weaknesses? Those who sincerely love others can more easily overlook their weaknesses. 

True love sees a precious gem in the other person, something very special. This person may not be perfect. But God looks at us as if we were already perfect. He sees in us what we could become with his help. This is not an unpolished rough diamond, but a well-formed, beautifully shining gemstone. He can transform our character if we just let him. Of course, this is often a painful process because he has to cut off things that are not good for us. But if we let him work on us, he will refine our character and enable us to love others with that same love. Then we will see the people around us with different eyes. We may notice their weaknesses and faults, but they will no longer bother us. In these people we will then see someone who is infinitely loved by their Creator and who has paid a high price for this person. He sees the potential that lies within each of us! 

Imagine if each of us were to put on this bond of love, namely the bond of perfection, and see our fellow human being through the eyes of God. Each of us would see in the other a person with infinite potential. The focus would no longer be on weaknesses, but on what this person could become. When we trust a person and believe in them, they also gain the courage to change things in their lives. Unkind criticism, on the other hand, is often discouraging and the person being criticized closes themselves off to the other person.
What kind of place would our world be if we accepted each other for who we are? If we stopped beating each other up over our character flaws and instead saw the potential in each other? Wouldn't that be a world in which we would all feel better? 

What must heaven be like then, where there will be no more character flaws? It will be a place where we all reflect God - namely perfect love.