Helping Others See Jesus
I’m a museum guy. I’ve written about this before, but while others go to the beach, I go to a museum. (Beaches aren’t air conditioned.) I love history, and I like learning. So there.
When it comes to art museums, though, I’m on the fence. I’ve written before about my experience with an art museum, so adding a city’s art museum to my list is iffy. (I would like to see the original A Friend in Need painting.) But if I’m ever in Wichita, Kansas, there’s one art museum I want to check out.
The Envision Arts Gallery for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Did you catch that? It’s an art museum for people who can’t see! In other art museums, you’ve got to keep your distance. It’s bad enough when you’re a 12-year-old kid and you accidentally trip, punching a hole in a baroque painting worth $1.5 million. But museums generally have a policy of DON’T TOUCH! DON’T EVEN BREATH!
The Envision Arts Gallery is hands on. They want you to put your fingers on it.
“The floor at Envision is covered with white ridged lines—cord covered over with tape—so people using sight canes are able to walk to each art piece. On the walls, each piece of art has a QR code for a spoken description of the artwork, and braille displays for each artist’s name and title of the piece. And, of course, all the artwork is meant to be touched.” [Source]
For example, one artist, Tomas Bustos, has taken some famous art pieces like van Gogh’s The Starry Night and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and recreated them as a 3D tactile experience. He’s turned Grant Wood’s American Gothic into a bronze sculpture.
Click here to read more about The Envision Arts Gallery for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
We are surrounded by people who can’t see Jesus. Some don’t think He’s real, and others are not looking for Him. So many don’t know about Jesus because they can’t see Him.
But they can see you. If you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, you are the face of Christ to those around you. They may not be able to see Jesus, but they can experience Him through you. Get to know others and let them get to know you. When you allow people to get up close and personal, they begin to see Jesus in you. They learn of His love and grace because of the love and grace you extend to them. You can tell them about Jesus and how He has transformed your life. For so many, those will just be words at first. But the more they get to know you, they should be able to see that words like grace, love, and faith are not just words, but they truly define your life. They can see Jesus in you.
I like how the New Living Translation states Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s masterpiece.” Through our sin, we have marred the image of God in us, but when we come to Christ, He forgives, restores, and makes us new. In Christ, “you are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator” (Col. 3:10 CSB).
People can see Jesus. They can experience His goodness, grace, and salvation because you are His masterpiece on display.
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This post supports the study “The Sign of His Light“ in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.
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