Love the Lord your God

The Greatest Commandment

Love the Lord your God - Christine Nichols

You may ask what this painting has do with the Greatest Commandment in the Bible. The answer is found in Mark 12:28-34. You see, after I had finished this piece, I stepped back to look at the painting and wondered what it meant and the Holy Spirit said, "Love the Lord your God."

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[Deut. 6:4-5] 31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[Leviticus 19:18]} There is no commandment greater than these.”
³² “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him. ³³ To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask Him any more questions. Mark 12:28-34

In the painting, I see the large gold heart representing our love for God. It is our first love, which is above all other loves, for Christ is to be first in our hearts and in our lives. The two smaller dark blue hearts symbolize our love for one another. The painting also symbolizes heaven touching earth through the power of God's love. 

This morning as I was contemplating how to write this blog (which I've been doing for more than a week) I looked at the painting and between the sunlight and the angle, the gold was shining brightly - much brighter than the photograph. I took this as confirmation that the gold heart and the "markings" were important to the overall meaning of the painting. Some folks see the upper left marking as a question mark. Others see it as the number seven. I see it as the Hebrew Letter Vav which confirms the heaven and earth connection. 

Here's an excerpt from Hebrews for Christians that explains the meaning of the Hebrew letter Vav:

The letter Vav is the sixth letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of six. The pictograph for Vav looks like a tent peg, whereas the classical Hebrew script (ketav Ashurit) is constructed of a vertical line and conjoined Yod. The meaning of the word vav is "hook," as a connecting hook used when the mishkan (tabernacle) was assembled.

The first Vav in the Torah occurs in Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The placement of the Vav suggests two of its essential connective powers:

• By joining heaven and earth () it implies the connection between spiritual and earthly matters.
   
• Since it occurs as the 22nd letter in the Torah attached to the sixth word, (et), it alludes to the creative connection between all of the letters. Vav is therefore the connecting force of the God, the divine "hook" that binds together heaven and earth.

I found it interesting that when I read another Christian artist's blog today, bringing heaven to earth was a definition of Prophetic Art. The blog was called Faith Colors by Lula Adams. 

A word from the Lord about prophetic art:
It is a way to bring heaven to earth…
To plant seeds of faith through vision…
It shows My face to the world. Just as music touches the soul, art reaches into the soul and stirs My love and mercy.

Prophetic art is done in union with Me, and My blessings shine forth from it. It speaks to the heart, where I dwell. In prophetic art, I connect with the artist who produces a good work, a good deed in art. What is a good deed but a demonstration of my love? My art is a demonstration of My love, an expression of mercy and grace.

Let Me stir my answer in your art.
Let Me stir passion in you.
Let worship come from deep places in your heart. To praise God’s glory is to spark life into you. To use art to express worship is to share worship. Sing into art and watch it stir up living water.

 

Love the Lord your God - Christine Nichols, 2009

In all of my art blog posts, I encourage everyone to seek their own personal interpretation from the Holy Spirit concerning the artwork. Usually the Lord tells me what the painting is about and He did with this painting in giving me the title, but I was stuck on the symbolism. I asked some friends to seek the Holy Spirit's interpretation and it deepened my understanding of the painting. Here's a few of their interpretations. When they mention the question mark or the number 7, it's in reference to the upper left gold marking. 

• Heaven touching earth through the power of love.
• The question mark like shape on the left intrigues me, I'm not sure what to make of it in comparison to the rest, which I agree is about love and heaven touching earth, at least at the moment..
• All our questions are answered with His love.  
• I like that. After reading what you wrote, it came to me. Instead of "his" love, it would be "their" love. The triangles meaning "Father, Son and Holy Spirit".
• This is the calling inside of a person. Of course I see it as the call on a woman's life. I see the shape of her body with the heart in the middle. The multiple hearts are the adornment on the dress she is wearing and also represent the love on the inside of her. Her heart is carrying the love of Jesus to the nations. The nations are represented in the bottom triangle, also the bottom of her dress. The yellow coming from the top of the dress or top triangle are the adornments of the Holy Spirit flowing through the woman. The blue is the sky, the ocean, the world. There is no limit to where we go when we are called to this mission of delivering the love of Jesus.
• the two red triangles connected represents the sands of time. when sin is in our lives our time is running out. but because of the grace of God, Jesus covers our sin. therefore our time never ends. we will live forever because we have a relationship with our Father and he loves us so much and he forgives all our sins. oh I didn't think of it it as a ?. to me look more like a 7. and seven means completeness. the dot was just the balance of the other dot on the other side. so along with what I was saying earlier. 7 means complete. was Jesus washing our sins with his blood we are complete. all the dots in the swooshings is all the mystery behind that. 
  
  
  • The first thing that came to mind was "on earth as it is in heaven".
  • Mountains and Valleys: interesting how the two mets or how their connected...the two seasons of our lives...both are needed, both lead to deeper revelation of His love
  • I see two main things: 1) an hour glass, measuring time til Jesus' return. The hearts are love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for us, the Bride. You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times." Matthew 16:3 2) a goblet, drink from His cup. The cup of red wine is symbolic of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ "In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 1Corinthians 11:25 The sky reference is about people desiring signs. red skies in the morning ..purrhos is greek for red like fire. In the Bible, (Matthew XVI: 2-3,) Jesus said, “When in evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: For the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering.”
  • I saw the hourglass as well and thought of the eternality of God and timelessness we are destined to live in forever with him. I see his parameters in which we are carried in the endless ocean of His love and anchored to his cross/covered in every
  way by his blood sacrifice - the ins and outs and ups and downs of our journey are extraordinary - carried in His arms of love and living out our enlightened destiny thru his multi-purposes means & dreams. His heart of love swallows up any darkness as we meld into oneness with Him. I love his perfection and secure hold!!! Double reinforcement of the Trinity with the two triangles!
  

It truly amazes me how the Lord uses His art to touch people's hearts and impact their lives. In closing, I'd like to return to the title of the painting, "Love the Lord your God" and pray that you do indeed love Him with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and with all your strength, and love others as you love yourself. By doing this, you are part of the heaven and earth connection! 

All my paintings begin with prayer. I ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance from beginning to end - from choosing the canvas and paint colors to the last brush stroke. I pray that the Lord's message would go forth through the art and that Father God would be glorified. 

I believe all prophetic art has a message, but what the Holy Spirit speaks to me about a specific piece of art, may be different than what the Spirit says to you. Seek Him for a personal interpretation.

You can find more Christian Abstract paintings that the Lord has given me on my Facebook page, Christine Nichols-Art, in a Photo Album called FOR HIS GLORY. If you've enjoyed the art, you're invited to LIKE and SHARE my art Facebook page: STEEN ART.