Let me tell you about my painting entitled Reflections of Divinity. I painted it on a wardrobe door with a large mirror on it. It attempts to answer the question, Where do I see God reflected in daily life? No one can see God. God is a mystery. All we can see is, as it were, reflections of God present and active.
The background points to nature in the form of a sunrise and the ocean deep. I see God reflected in nature, but I chose to feature the sunrise because I also see God reflected in the human hope for a new and better world, a new day dawning. However if we live on the surface simply chasing after pleasure, money, and status we will miss out on an awareness of God. For that we need to experience God reflected in the depths of life – in relationships, in the search for meaning.
I placed a hotair balloon in the morning sky to symbolize the idea that I see God reflected in my inner experience of uplift and optimism arising out of my faith in God.
Below that comes a cross to represent Jesus. For me, that is the key to all the others. I see God reflected in Jesus more clearly than anywhere else and my perception of God reflected in Jesus shapes my perception of God present and active elsewhere. The cross focuses on the selfgiving love that characterized his life.
Then there is a mirror positioned at a height so that the viewer will see himself or herself reflected there. This is to say that I see God reflected in every human life. In Genesis we read that human beings are made in the image of God. That’s a way of saying that they reflect something of God in their personhood, creativity, rationality.
Below that I positioned four bubbles. The first depicts a young boy asleep in his father’s arms. This represented the fact that I see God reflected in my experience of inner peace and security, an experience that grows out of my relationship with God in Christ.
The second bubble depicts a Mother Teresa figure feeding a helpless man. Wherever I see compassion I see God being reflected.
The third bubble shows a paramedic about to be hoisted back up into a helicopter with a patient on a stretcher. This represents God reflected in rescue, redemption, salvation and recovery.
Finally there is the picture of a a hand holding a compass representing the idea that God is reflected in a sense of direction and purpose for life.