"My New Heart", digital print, 8 x 10", January 30, 2004
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A Broken Heart and an Image to Paint On this website I have some art work which deals with the heart motif. The very word "heart" conjures up many meanings. On making art work centering on the symbol of the heart, the inference is usually the subject of Love. In our culture, a heart shape brings to mind valentines and love poems and initials of lovers carved into the trunk of a tree encircled by a heart. But there is another side to the heart theme, that of the broken heart. I'm not just talking of jilted lovers here, for a person can have a broken heart for many reasons. Sometimes just the ravages of time and circumstance can leave a person feeling like his/her heart is broken. I myself have felt broken hearted. When a person has a broken heart, they need healing. The Bible says, "God heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds." (Psalm 147:3.) He also says, "I make all things new." How can God heal my heart? Sometimes I
just want to start over again in life. Throw out the old things
that have hurt me or kept me down. I want a new heart. Sometimes my own heart is hurt because I don't even accept myself. I feel like I am a failure. I mess up. But the Bible says that God loves us just as we are. We don't have to do anything but love him back and believe in Him and what His Son Jesus did for us. Then we are His children and have His unconditional love sweep into our heart with the Holy Spirit coming into it. Maybe that's how God is healing my broken heart, from the inside out. How would I illustrate that kind of love
that heals a person's very heart and soul? That makes it new
and free of all pain and hurt and worry? I also like the way the Bible talks about how Jesus gives us living water. A flower needs water to grow. A tree needs it to bear fruit. "Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13 "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22 My new heart is like a flowering tree, which unfolds with blossoms and then bears fruit. Once again, the Bible provided me with something tangible to draw and paint. |