Dance

"Dance"
Acrylic on Canvas

Okay, so here it is, what I dread writing. This is a painting of a body in freedom. It makes me happy and makes me ask the question: "Is he merely dancing or is he flying?" Personally I feel heavy most of the time... When you have a weight problem, most of the time you don't have a spring in your step. When I was at Asbury we had this ramp leading down into the chapel and the chapel office and I dreaded walking down it alone because you could always hear this thump thump thump as your feet hit the floor. Now this happens with everyone but with a weight problem it feels like it my thuds and thumps are louder than other peoples. I had this insane worry that it was echoing down the hall behind me. It's just my imagination but still this picture points to a body completely unashamed. I have been continuing to lose weight since I left seminary, in fact tonite I have a Weight Watcher's meeting. It is going well. In many ways this painting points forward to something I have only glimpsed. I like how my friend Isaac Hopper put it:

Understanding that I see this with eyes irrevocably changed by an intense and ongoing encounter with the Christ of salvation, I see such tragic beauty in this piece that I can hardly contain myself. I see in the dancer a life that has been freed to become the Father's joy. He explodes with motion as he expresses the joy he feels at the warm embrace of the Father. He does so against a backdrop of sacrificial love - the blood of Christ. It envelops him, holds him, suspends him in his eternal dance.

Hmmm... well put Isaac... I didn't know why this painting made me so happy until you said that.