Love's Return
Oil on canvas 5' x 7'

​When my wife and I set out by faith to do these paintings on a road trip that would eventually span over 19,000 miles, I knew only where I was to start; I had no idea how it all would end. The goal was to do twelve paintings from the lives of martyrs. When we began,  I knew the subjects of the first three paintings but beyond that, I was still searching out subject matter. As we traveled step by revealed step and painted at conferences and churches spread along the road from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to Maricopa, Arizona and back, I continued to research martyr stories from a growing collection of sources, and leaned heavily into the Holy Spirit for guidance and inspiration. 

Two thirds of the way through the process, eight paintings down, I began to turn to God to ask: how do you want this to end?  I literally had thousands of testimonies of martyrdom spread out in front of me. And I was aware that thousands more would write their testimonies in blood. According to Voice of the Martyrs, in 2009 (while I was doing these paintings) approximately 30,000 martyrdoms occurred. In light of such precious widespread and ongoing testimony, I was unsure what story would be fitting as my grand finale for this book. 

One day, in answer to my question, the Holy Spirit voiced His opinion. He simply brought to my inquiring heart these words: 

"Look! I am coming quickly and my reward is in my hand, to give to each one according to what he has done." (Revelation 22:12)

​Here was an entirely new direction for me to take–I had been painting stories of an offering of undying love, an offering from man to God; now I was invited to contemplate a divine response to those offerings, the interest on those investments. I was invited to illustrate Love's Return.

I knew I could not do any one painting that in itself would capture all that the return of Christ will reveal: that would be artistically impossible. And although it is a very real and prominent aspect of His return, I decided not to try to represent His coming as a warrior, to fight His final battle and establish the Kingdom on earth.  Instead, I felt led to reach past that triumph and try with this painting to invite a contemplation of Jesus the Bridegroom, coming for His Bride. I set out to paint Him on His mighty white horse, dressed in royal wedding garments.

I felt the Spirit of God impressed on me to illustrate that the gift of love that we give to God, in the sacrifices we make on His behalf–for our relationship with Him and out of loyalty to that relationship–those gifts of love move His heart. They do not go unnoticed. And they open the doorway to an intimate response from His heart. When we make the choices that our individual walks of life demand in order to identify us–even publicly, blatantly in front of all other options, all other lovers–with the eternal Lover of our souls, heaven takes note of it. 

I recall the words of Yeshua as He said,  "...Everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me {out of a state of oneness with Me}, I will also acknowledge him before My Father who is in heaven and confess [that I am abiding in] him. But whoever denies and disowns Me before men, I also will deny and disown him before My Father Who is in heaven." (Mathew 10:33, from the Amplified Bible) Remember, dear reader, scripture states that "we overcome by the blood of the Lamb of God and by the word of our testimony" (Revelation 12:11). And "it is with the heart we believe and with the tongue we confess and are saved!" (Romans 10:9-10)

Jesus really is coming quickly. And as He comes, His reward is in His hands...

As I thought about these things, I invited my wife to contemplate with me the phrase from Revelation 22:12, "...and my reward is in my hand..."  We discussed together what that reward could be and how best to represent it visually. Just what is the reward in His hand? 

In the end, both of us remained in silent prayer for a while in different rooms, listening with the Holy Spirit; individually God gave each of us the same clear indication that His love is the reward in His hand. In this final painting we agreed that the symbol of the Love that is His reward would be an armful of roses.

For Caryn Beth, the revelation went even deeper: she considered that perhaps every time we give a gift of love to Yeshua, He received from us, as it were, a rose; over time, the bouquet of our love for Him could grow as we continue to give of ourselves on His behalf. All of those roses given to Him are precious and are kept guarded close to His heart; upon His return they will be given back. "...to give to each according to what he has done." Rev. 22:12

She further observed that in the painting, the blood of His wounded hand is the same color as the red of the roses; it is His sacrificial love that strengthens us to love Him back.

Meditating further on the day of Christ's appearing, I realized it would also signify the end of the presence of evil. I personally long for the day when the struggle with darkness will be entirely behind us, when the wedding banquet begins and the things that God has prepared for those who love Him are finally revealed (1 Corinthians 2:9), things that are beyond our imaginations and things that are so wonderful that it says in comparison, whatever difficulties we face on His behalf now are not even worth remembering (Romans 8:18; see also II Corinthians 4:16-18). Reflecting on that, I was reminded that right now, Yeshua is seated at the right hand of the Father, until the Father makes all Yeshua's enemies into His footstool (Mathew 22:44). Building on that last phrase, I decided to paint the coming Bridegroom wearing snakeskin boots to His wedding, the snake-hide symbolizing the final triumphant end that will be made of the devil and all evil. Hallelujah! 

There was a day when the disciples, walking through the streets of Jerusalem, drew Yeshua's attention to the impressive stone buildings in the city. Yeshua helped to put things in perspective for his students (I paraphrase here from Mathew 24): "Pretty soon," he said, "not one stone is going to be left on top of another." He went on to talk to them of the end of time, and the signs that would lead up to the last days of time as we know it. One of the signs that he pointed out was that there would be extensive persecution of His followers. So He let them (and us) know ahead of time that this would be the case. And then he said to them:

"Make up your mind ahead of time not to be afraid."

Instead, he went on, "when you see these things happening, lift up your heads, for your redemption is getting very close."

Dear readers, even as the very signs Yeshua was talking about have become exponentially more and more common place, it is my hope through this book to redirect your attention skyward. Look up! Lift up your heads! Your redemption is very close! Look up– see coming for you with His arms full of love, your long awaited Bridegroom! See coming for you the very Champion of your heart, the very One who bought your ticket to freedom from sin and death! Look up, see the Love in His eyes, see His supreme Majesty, His splendor! He has dressed Himself for a wedding, for all who have set your hearts on things above, all whose treasure is in heaven! Look up! See Heaven's Treasure thundering towards you! Look up, lift up your heads, past the mountain of alarming, temporal things that surround you! Let His perfect love drive away all your fears and reveal instead to your tired eyes the eternal Husband who will not leave you alone! Look: He is coming! HE IS COMING! HE IS COMING FOR YOU, AND HIS REWARD IS IN HIS HANDS!​