I’ve been drawing faces as an art exercise this year. Using 2 pens, one in each hand, I draw lines to play with symetry (and not), light and shadow, expression and form. The faces are soon completed and, although I am their creator, their final attitudes always surprise me. My sketchbook is filling up with all of these different personalities which seem to emerge from my pens all on their own.
I look at them in their final state and express my continued amazement that God is never surprised by us…and, then, I give thanks for it. I need a God who knows me that well.
Looking at today’s drawings, I am reminded of Walt Whitman’s long and long-ago poem entitled, “Faces“, wherein he describes those he passes and calls them by their stories. He never mentions their names. He sees only their appearances.
God calls us in a far more personal manner. The prophet Isaiah assured us of this when he wrote,
“But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.’ ”
Isaiah 43:1
In other parts of Scripture (Romans 2:11, Colossians 3:25), we’re told that God doesn’t play favorites. James 2:9, goes even further by reminding us that doing so is a sin…and God is without sin. Why does that matter? Because if God could call Jacob by name and remember His promises to him through Jacob’s descendants long after his passing, you can be assured that He knows your name, too.
God sees past our present appearances and draws us toward His deepest desire: the reflection of His Son, who gave up not only His comfort, but His life for us. We are known by name and desired by our Creator. We are more than faces, in all of our shapes and places, we are His workmanship and the way He wants to show others how much He loves them, as well.
May we rush to fulfill His vision.
Grace and Peace!
quiet ambitions: 