"Jonah" 2013

I was commissioned by The Difference Makers Fellowship to create a painting. Pastor Bill Stubblefield stopped me one day as I was loading my paintings into the back of my cousin's pickup. He rolled down his window and said, "Are these for sale?" I said I had already sold the one he wanted. He put his car in park and walked up to me, "I sense God wants you to paint a painting for me. Search the idea in prayer and call me." He handed me his card and left. 

This project has kept me in my faith when I was so lost this summer. It has been my floatation device. I presented it to the congregation yesterday and said this:

Jonah was the first missionary ever commissioned by God. In fact Jonah means, “Dove”. Lets think of the times God sends a dove.  Genesis 8:11, God brings the olive leaf as a sign of hope. Matthew 3:16-17, when Jesus was baptized it illustrated the hope of a new life in him. Jonah was the first messenger of hope. Yet, he fought God on it in every turn. Jonah demonstrates the struggle of every missionary. I think so often we believe we are more deserving of God's love than those around us, and this is exactly Jonah's mindset toward the Ninavites. Nineveh was known for their cruelty and violence and this is confirmed by ancient records found there. So instead of following God's call he ran away from God. I've run away from God so many times, but no matter what God always brings us back. If it takes having us swallowed by a giant fish- He'll do it. God spares no expense in bringing his children back on track. 

This message in particular resounds with me because God used me as the "big fish" in my father's faith. My dad was an atheist when he married my mother, but he loved who she was so much he wanted us, his children, raised in her faith so that we would be like her. He just simply could not believe in God. Finally one day he prayed the prayer, "God, if you're real, give me a sign." I was in pre-school, and had just finished watching Sesame Street. Sesame Street taught me that day that "z" was the last letter of the alphabet. I wondered what the last number was. I was in the entry way playing with my toys as my dad, a pilot, was carrying his bags to his car about to leave on another trip. When I hugged him goodbye I asked him what the last number was. He told me he didn't know, but he would find out for me. That day as he and the other pilot were sitting in the cockpit, the pilot turned to my dad and said, "I was selected to name the highest number named, 10 to the hundredth power. My little girl helped me come up with the name, googol." That was the moment my dad realized there might be something to this whole God-thing. And I think God told me then and there, he was always going to use me as his fish to bate people to Christ.

I believe when God says light there will be light. When God says go, we will go. When God says fish he means fish. So I do not believe that a whale swallowed Jonah. I believe that a fish swallowed him. The word used in Jonah does not mean whale, but sea monster. And actually, the research behind it shows the most plausible fish, would be a whale shark. Whale sharks are very docile. They have a huge vacuum for a mouth and simple inhale their food and release the water through their gills. Whales on the other hand, are either toothed whales or baleen whales. Toothed whales would most likely chew Jonah up if they decided to tackle something his size. Baleen whales eat tiny fish. Whale sharks have been found to reach lengths as long as 70 feet. This is why I chose to portray the fish as a whale shark.

Finally I chose to put the whale shark in a shooting star with a night sky in the background because of Daniel 12:3 that says, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." We are God's stars, shining His light into the darkness. 1 Corinthians 15:41 "The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor." And we may feel like just another dot in the sky, but no star can shine like you. God has a specific area only you can shine light into. I have Esther 4:14 to remind me that God will find a way to carry out His will with or without me, I can let my light dim, BUT He has placed you and I here in His kingdom for a such a time as this. We have been placed right here right now for a purpose. Ezekiel 33:1-9- we are the watchmen. We are the lighthouses for God's light, if we don't warn others of the perils without Christ; their blood is on our hands. Jonah 4:4-11, the greatest missionary lesson is contained in these closing verses. Are the souls of men and women not worth as much as a vine or our everyday conveniences? Like Jonah, we can fall to be more concerned about the material benefits given to us by God, than the destiny of a lost soul. WE ARE CALLED TO SHINE