Sunday's ART of Truth - "Becoming the Beloved" - 10-04-20

Hello friends,

Oh wow, this project was so fun to do. It took some unexpected turns and ended up being completely different than I had planned. Sometimes, that is a very good thing. Today’s blog is titled “Becoming the Beloved”. The elements that I chose for this were very intentional. I chose an old newspaper as part of the background. To me, it represents story that is fixed in time. It is in black and white. It happened. It is part of history. It is old and aged. The music notes I chose always speak to me of a song in us that has often been silenced by the happenings of this world, so I had to have those. Clocks for me always represent journey. As I referenced in the video, time has not always been my friend. I lost a lot of it in my life. But now, time is the hope of another day. It represents how far I have come and how much more I have and want to do. One of the clocks that I adhered to my paper tore and I instantly thought, aha. That means something. When trauma happens, time distorts. We get robbed of time. We didn’t get to live in the moment. Time gets torn away from us. Later, when we heal, we get to recapture it. I talked about the reason for the crimson paint while I was creating the piece, but for me, the red/the blood of Jesus means everything to me. If he had not rescued me, I would not be here. He didn’t stop things from happening to me but he protected me. He protected the core of me. His sacrificial love (as represented by the ink stained envelope on the piece) gave up everything so that I could unbecome what and who I was, and become who He created me to me – Beloved.

The inspiration for this piece and this blog came from a book I love and have read several times. It is by Charles Martin and it’s called Unwritten. It is about a man and a woman and a priest. The man in the book, one of the main characters was an orphan from birth, became a writer and gave all his extra time to a children’s ward at a hospital for kiddos without parents. One of the girls dies unexpectedly and not from what you would have thought she would die from. He went off the deep end literally, and drove his car over a bridge. He survived. The woman in the story had an equally difficult upbringing but became famous in film and acting. She gave birth to a son and left him for someone else to raise. He later died. The Priest bridges these two lives together. I will let you read the story. Everything that Charles Martin has ever written have been phenomenal. But the part of the story that struck me was something the woman said in the end to an audience in which she was introducing the man to. She said, “love is…opening up the bag of you and risking…(essentially) We each have experiences that are unique to us and sometimes, those things are deadly or debilitating. They can cause one to want to end their life. To believe that there is no hope for the future. That there is no amount of salvation or redemption that can fix their broken heart. In the book, the author also makes reference to ‘unbecoming’.

Unbecoming who we are to become who we were meant to be is an amazing gift. In order to do that, we have to begin to dig out the gangrene from our wounds so that we can heal. So that we can feel alive again. So that we can feel…anything. We can’t just cover it over. It oozes out everywhere and we end up bleeding on people who aren’t the ones who hurt us.

I didn’t want to title the art piece ‘Unbecoming’. I mean, who would understand that? So, as I processed this idea of opening up the bag of me and risking…I was reminded that the unbecoming isn’t the end of the story. Yes, we must unbecome where we came from and the things that we carried. Of course, this is after all the gangrene has been cut out and the wretched feelings felt but there is something else on the other side of unbecoming.

We have an invitation to ‘become’. To shed the old skin, the old heart & the old messages/lessons and reach for new clothes. A heart that is whole. A place where truth reigns and the lies are drowned out by the lifter of our heads. He wants so much to come along side of us and exchange the gangrene for the new clothes. For the new life. For the new start. For the opportunity to feel and know love.

That answer for me is Jesus. He waits for us. He longs for us. He wants to unwrap our bandages and gently peel away the scar tissue. With his tender and pure balm, He wants to heal our wounds. Those places that have never seen the light of day. The places that most of us never talk about. The places that scarred our souls. He wants us to become His beloved. His princess. His daughter.

I have been kissed by that love. I had danced with that love. I have known it in my deepest places, and it has healed me.

It is scary to open up and un-become who we have always known ourselves and our lives to be. There is a famous quote that says ‘A known hell is better than an unknown heaven’. Those words have followed me through my whole journey. At so many junctures, I had to ask myself if I was willing to take the risk and reach for the gentle hand of Jesus and let go of everything I had ever known about my life and myself and exchange that for something new. An unknown heaven.

I did. I do. Still do. It’s a process. It takes time.

I want to encourage you, my friends. I speak of the faith that I understand and experience. This may be different than yours and that is okay 😊 I hope that you can take bits of truth out of this project and this writing.

There is hope. What has been broken can be mended. There is a love that is greater than anything you have ever known.

It is scary. Terrifying. Baby steps to heal the heart. Baby steps to trust. Baby steps to undo the things that we believe about ourselves. You can do it. You are worth it.

My friends, you deserve to be loved. You deserve to be cherished. You were born for these things. You were born to be BELOVED.

Until next time- Blessings,

Beloved-Reborn