The colors of this icon came out far brighter than I anticipated. It looks very retablos-ish. Which goes to show that religious art in many different cultures imitate each other. There is a "primitiveness," a simplicity, in religious art that is able to speak to the heart of man. Either that, or it merely shows my inability to keep my New Mexican upbringing apart from my art!! Which is good too.
An artist may try very hard to keep the self out of an image, but this is impossible to do. The reflection of the artist's sufferings, joys, prayers is part of what makes art so beautiful. It is also one way in which Christ is imaged in the icon. Christ, in His humanity, experienced all things but sin. He loved, He was joyful, He was sorrowful. He fought with righteousness, He was a peacemaker.
In John, chapter 4, the Samaritan woman flirts with Christ. "I have no husband!" She tells Him. This isn't a side of Christ we usually think about. We want Christ to be aloof, to show only His Divine nature. But it is His humanity that makes the wonderful Incarnation. It is Christ' humanity that creates the bridge between Heaven and Earth.
Jesus reads the Samaritan woman like a book. He is not afraid of this woman, but loves her, and wants her for the Kingdom, just as He wants you and me.
God is a true romantic. He loves us and desires us for Himself, in the purest most perfect way. I am amazed how often God draws me to himself daily. Whether it be in the flowers I received today, in the laughter of my children, and yes, even in their screams of rage, which prove they are human beings with wills of their own, albeit, wills that need to be directed properly.
God is everywhere, loving each of us wholly, completely. Yet we are sinful creatures, and so find it hard to believe that anyone, much less our perfect, beautiful, and all-good God, could possibly really love us. God's love IS hard to accept. He died for us, after-all. How easy is it to believe that God died for YOU? Or if you believe it, how easy it to accept that Someone, no, the beloved God, had to DIE for you? Few want another to suffer, especially because of one's own sin.
Yet this is our goal in life, to accept God's love, to allow it to purify us, move us, perfect us. May we see God and His love in all things, and allow all things to bring us closer to God. And then, let us tell the whole village, like the Samaritan Woman, and bring them to Christ too!
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