Strong Hands of Love
Painted in Alexandria, Egypt, February, 2012
On Valentines day in 2012, I did this painting for an underground House of Prayer in Alexandria, Egypt. It is portrait of a very strong man with nail scars in His wrists, tenderly wrapping a young boy and a young girl in His powerful embrace.
Against the backdrop of the smoke rising from the ashes of the chaos, unrest and violence loosed in Egypt during the "Arab Spring," around the portrait I painted a banner with the text from Deuteronomy 33:12 in Arabic:
“The Beloved of the Lord rests safely between His shoulders.”
An Egyptian viewer stopped me afterword: “Wow, He is so strong –I never really thought of God as being so strong! I know God is strong, but I guess I never thought of Him as looking so strong. That is so powerful.” The simple painting had magnified her understanding of the God who both is All Mighty and personally tender.
Against the backdrop of the smoke rising from the ashes of the chaos, unrest and violence loosed in Egypt during the "Arab Spring," around the portrait I painted a banner with the text from Deuteronomy 33:12 in Arabic:
“The Beloved of the Lord rests safely between His shoulders.”
An Egyptian viewer stopped me afterword: “Wow, He is so strong –I never really thought of God as being so strong! I know God is strong, but I guess I never thought of Him as looking so strong. That is so powerful.” The simple painting had magnified her understanding of the God who both is All Mighty and personally tender.