A few weeks ago I heard this story on the radio and it made me stop to listen, i think it fits in nicely with Emma’s last post.
“When Leonardo Da Vinci was starting off to paint the Last Supper he had a major disagreement with another artist and decided to get his own back by painting his face as Judas! And it worked, people could recognise this fellow artist as Judas!
But as time went on Da Vinci couldn’t finish the painting, as he couldn’t perfect Jesus.
During this time God spoke to Da Vinci challenging him on forgiveness and as a result Da Vinci changed Judas’ face and got inspiration on how to finish and perfect Jesus’ face!”
Jesus came to the world as a saviour to forgive us, fulfilling the promises of God and to create a way to God the Father, something we all remember at Christmas.
Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice to forgive us of all our sin and shame that we carried but paid the ultimate price for it and as Emma put it so well in the other post we are called to forgive those around us as it is the very nature of God.
What I also found really interesting in the story of Da Vinci’s painting was that he was really struggling to paint Jesus’s face as Jesus is the son of God and Da Vinci had no human model that resembled a possible template for the son of God!
And yet perfect, sinless, holy, pure, righteous Jesus (i could keep going) gave up His life for us to make us clean, to forgive us, to set us free from sin and into eternal life with God forever!!! This blows my mind.
One truth that can be easy to overlook, or forget etc, especially when you mess up is that Jesus’ blood is for everyday it covers everything and is the assurance of faith, as in Hebrews:
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with atrue heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10v19-25
At Christmas we remember how God sent His one and only son to earth, and I pray that we would all know more and more in our hearts and minds what the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus means for us and that it would change us continually.
Have a blessed Christmas, may it be restful and full of Joy
Dan