Compelled to Create

Paint-by-Number Jesus

My ancestors must have been voracious hunters and gatherers. My husband and I get on “crusades” as we call them. One of us will get some wacko thing stuck in our head and nothing can get in our way. My latest crusade has been finding unusual, generally handmade, images of Jesus at the local thrift stores. 

It began at the thrift store just 1/2 mile down the street. Recently, a number of unusual Jesus images started to appear (no, not miraculously, like in the mold spot on the wall). Paint-by-number Jesus was the first. It caught my eye, but at $7 it was a little pricey so I passed it up. But it stuck with me, until I finally went back. It was still waiting for me (the other Jesus image, of him peering into the windows of the United Nations, was gone).  

Paint-by-number Jesus is very carefully done, and appears to be professionally framed. It really put my brain to puzzling over why we seem compelled to create images of Jesus (one reason for the name of this blog). Most of them are probably amazingly inaccurate, but it doesn’t seem to matter. We just want to imagine the Divine with skin on. 

But, the thing that struck me most about p-b-n Jesus is the irony. Paint-by-number allows anyone to create a decent-looking painting with little or no thought. If only Christianity were that easy. I wish, when hit with a #4 in life, I knew to bring out the sky blue and all would be well. The #7 is dark green, and #16 is bright red…the answers would be easy. I would know the next step. 

Instead, it seems I am usually bumbling around in the dark with my trusty paintbrush but no numbers to guide me. But one thing I know, my life’s “painting” doesn’t look like anyone else’s. 

Matthew 7:13, 14; The Message; Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.