At the "Beyond our Wildest Dreams" spiritual retreat I was on last week one of our first assignments was to pick out a picture from a selection of very different images laid out for us. We had time to look at them all, as we circled around. There were all kinds of pictures, conveying a range of emotions, times and places. Then once we all had a chance to view them all we were given the chance to go grab the one that we felt most drawn to. The image I was most drawn to initially was of a couple sharing an ice cream cone. Normally something that I would not be drawn to, but I really wanted that picture...but then there was one of a lady who looked like she might be a nun, no one took that, but it was kinda calling my name. In the end I snagged the picture above. As I sat there holding my image, looking into it I realized that I had just the right one for me.

There is nothing fancy about this painting, I have no idea who the artist is. It is just a swirl of paints. Red, yellow and blackish blue are the only real colors. The emotion could be whatever you or I imagined it to be. It is however the same image that I have been toying with for the past nine months or so. The idea of my spiritual journey not as a straight line, or an uphill climb as so many have tried to sell me over the years, but the more inviting (I think) idea of my journey with God as a spiral. As something that circles around, hits some of the same themes and plot points again and again, but always getting tighter and closer to the heart of God. This picture though, this took it to an even better place for me. In this picture I could see that my path was nestled in, next to God's. That it was messy at times, not neat and perfect, that we were becoming less and less distinguishable as we journey deeper together. This is not to say that God is conforming to me but that hopefully I am conformed by Him and the time spent together on this journey.

A piece of art was able to paint for me such a beautiful image of what my journey with Christ can be. My prayer thus has become that my life will be like that painting, able to display what that picture lived out can look like. Not perfect, messy at times, but in the end a beautiful thing to be treasured because of the love that went into it.