After I'd spending time with my daughter and grandson, the Lord reminded me not to neglect my own son. I remembered the e-mails I sent him in December, thought maybe I could do a repeat, or draw a nice picture of something he liked.
I rushed over to his room and asked what he was interested in. But as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I shouldn’t have. Sure enough, my son said, “FPS Gaming.” and pointed a gun with his fingers.
“A killing instrument God? For real?” God seemed to have led me to ask what to draw, but...”isn’t this an ABOMINATION, GOD?!”
For a few days, I tried stalling. Maybe God would give me another idea. I chose the paper, canvas, sizing, preparing, base coloring, drying, smoothing...until I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer, and God hadn’t given me any thoughts about what to do. Then I thought I’d add the theme of the roaring lion hunting the souls of men, transfixing their minds with spiritually insignificant battle...maybe this roaring lion could fight with the “lion the tribe of Judah”? Nah. Too much like “Lion King”, where Scar fights Simba. A Shepherd protecting His sheep from the lion would be better! But who was I kidding? Those ideas weren’t Heaven-sent but were my own desperate attempts to steer away from raw FPS.
I actually began drawing and painting the lion...but then God made the colors, lines, and textures so fit another painting, it was as if He declared if any lions were drawn, they should be kept there, not here, in this picture.
Doesn’t it look like he fits here, in a Safari?
So I threw up my hands mentally and said all right God; You know what You’re doing. I’m just going to draw the picture then, and did, drawing my son’s chair in the dark--from the back. I pretty much kept the computer display down to a firing mechanism, a horizon with some clouds, and an approaching ogre-like figure.
Along with the picture, I sent my son an e-mail. “I hope you know your mother well enough by now to know this is not saying I think violence is ok as long as it’s only a game. It’s still wrong. But I love you, want you to be all you can be, and want you to know I want to spend time with you, okay?”
The next day, for the worship service message, it was as if God sent His approving smile. The text was from Acts 10. Barry Potter said Peter too had responded to God’s voice: “Rise, kill, and eat.” with an unequivocal “No!” In God’s patient dealings with Peter, I don’t know if Peter stalled or came up with his own “clever” ideas and slippery dodges, like I tried...until he too agreed with the Lord: ”What God has cleansed, call not unclean.”
In the text, it was shown how Peter was able, right after that, to show peace by Jesus Christ to Cornelius and the Gentiles. (Acts 10:36)
Details may differ, but when our Lord tells us to do something that goes against our grain, we need to swallow pride in our past and just obey Him. Maybe then God can show others the peace of Christ through us too.
