Day 2The longer you look at something, the more you see. This is one of the principles I have discovered with seeing. As I review my day of seeing, the image that takes the prize is the image of which I took the longest look. David painted it this morning. He enjoys visual journaling as a way of praying and helping him process his life. This morning, he painted this vibrant image to the left. During breakfast, we looked at it and talked about its meaning.
As I studied it, really looked at it, a compelling symbol of our marriage emerged. If you notice the blue stream on the right side, it looks like two streams that have converged, their outsides asymmetrical, following their own distinctive paths, while the insides pool together as one. In the same way, David and I live individual lives, yet we seek to maintain our relational connection, our shared union. That’s important to us and something we really value.
The longer I looked at this image, the more I saw and the more it spoke to me about our relationship. That's the beauty of an image--it says things that we sometimes can’t find words to express. Images capture and confirm what we know to be true and speak to us in vivid, insightful language. Best of all, they stick with us. They stoke our minds and nourish us again and again.
If you are married, why not discover an image that captures the substance and unique nuance of your relationship:
- Take some time to be still, quiet your mind, and center yourself in God.
- Ask God to impress an image on your mind that symbolizes your marriage.
- Don’t “think” the image; imagine it, using your right brain to conceive it.
- Once a basic idea comes to mind, draw it on a sheet of paper.
- Ask yourself these questions: How does this image speak to you about your marriage? About your values as a couple? How does it strengthen the core of your marriage?
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