Pink and Purple Jesus
A recent prayer time with my family. I had both of my daughters sit on the sofa to prepare their hearts. I asked them to close their eyes and think about God, about Jesus. I asked them to think about the stories they've heard about Jesus and about the other Bible's stories they know. I asked them to think about what God did in each of them and while they did this we prayed that God would reveal Himself to us, to show us Himself, to speak to us.
After a few moments, I sat down with Jewel Grace who is two years old. I asked, “Jewel Grace, what does Jesus look like? She pulled her thumb out of her mouth and responded almost instantly, “He’s pink.” I then said, “He’s pink.” believing God heard our prayers I continued, ” Is He any other color? She responded again, ” He’s pink and puw-pul”. I asked her, “Jewel Grace why is Jesus pink and purple? She responded with a look of concern in her eyes and pulling her thumb our of her mouth to touch her body she said, “He broke Himself.” and it was about this point that I was so glad for Jewel Grace, she had seen Jesus in her child-like state. Her look of concern was looking to me for an answer. I said, “Yes, Jewel Grace… Jesus was pink and purple”, I pointed to her little bruised legs from all her playing and jumping,“and I said He was bruised all over and broke Himself for you, and sister (who was also listening intently and so wanting to share what she saw), for mommy and daddy, and everyone. Jesus broke Himself so bad that He died, and He died for us.” It was one of those times I could tell my words were just sinking in to her little life. She captured everyone of them and I know she understood, maybe not the fullness of it, but the seed of it. And it will grow.
I repeated the questions this time speaking to Jane. Her response was that “He’s wearing a white robe and has brown hair that’s short like yours with a beard that goes into it.” and I thought about how this applies to me and others. We each seem to have a different picture of what Jesus looks like. Artists’ throughout this age have tried to capture the image of Jesus and my Jewel sees Jesus broken, pink and purple while my daughter Jane sees Jesus being Jesus but kind of like her daddy in a way. The truth is that to my children, me and their mother are, should be the image of Christ to our children and so often we lose site of who Jesus is being distracted from the things of this world.
What does Jesus look like to you? Have you taken the time to find Him? If you can’t find Him yourself, then how will your children know who He is?
