Illustration Friday - Future

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Illustration Friday - Farewell

Illustration Friday - Wild

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Illustration Friday - Urban

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Illustration Friday - Swimming

Waiting on God

A couple of weeks ago, the pastor at my church gave an interesting sermon about Jesus removing himself from his ministry every now and then, to go up the mountain and be with the Father.
He showed a slide of a mountain in Israel that Jesus might have gone to in His day. It had little caves in it that he could hunker down in for the night. One of the key things the pastor mentioned was that Jesus didn't pray all night -- the pastor jokingly added "he was a man, he didn't have that many words". I thought that was pretty funny. The point is, he prayed and then he waited -- listened -- to hear what the Father had to say. After hearing that, and seeing the picture of the mountain, I knew I had to illustrate it. So after thinking about it for a while, I came up with this illustration.

The Face of Jesus

When I was in my preteens I remember the mini-series "Jesus of Nazareth" coming on the television and when I first saw Jesus as he was portrayed in that series, I thought, this is surely what he must have looked like. The blue penetrating eyes, fair skin and long brown hair seemed to fit the meek Jesus I knew so little about at that time.

Growing older, I've come to realize that he wouldn't have looked like that at all. First of all, he was Semitic -- a Jew. He would have had olive skin and most likely dark hair. The bible doesn't give many clues, but in the book of Isaiah it says "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." Isaiah 53 v2.

In the gospel accounts, Judas Iscariot had to kiss Jesus to single him out from the rest of his disciples. I suppose it really doesn't matter much what he looked liked or there most likely would have been more written about his physical appearance. This Easter I urge you to read Isaiah 53 in its entirety. The reason Jesus came to live amongst us is recorded in that chapter -- centuries before it actually came to be. I decided to draw him for interests sake. One day I will see him in his risen physical form, until then, I can only imagine his appearance.