When I was 12 years old, I had an interesting dream. I dreamed that I was working on a project for my 7th grade art class. I covered a piece of paper with dots and dashes, something like Morse code. Then, I poured watercolors over my project, and I watched as my dots and dashes swirled all over the paper, kind of like a cartoon animation of wind. When the swirling was done, I was looking at a beautiful, intricately painted lion standing on a high hill covered with purple flowers. I woke up and thought, “I need to paint that.” I wasn’t even really into painting at the time; I was just a seventh grader who liked art class.
In eight grade, I started experimenting with acrylic paints for the first time. I wasn’t particularly good at it, but I knew that I wanted to improve. Over the next few years, I checked out all of the library’s step-by-step painting books. I worked hard at it and realized acrylic painting was becoming a passion. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I thought it was time to try painting the lion from my dream.
At the time, I didn’t think too hard about the dream having any meaning. I’ve always thought of lions having an association with Christianity. Jesus is often referred to as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” in the Bible. C.S. Lewis’ Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia is also a symbol of Jesus. So, I thought of my painting as a symbol of Jesus and left it at that.
Fast forward to this year, 2020. The past several months have been the hardest of my life. I started the year off by watching my beloved father fade away from a cancer that took his life just three weeks after being diagnosed. My biggest fear in life has always been the death of my parents. I never expected to have to face this fear so soon. My dad was still a couple years away from retirement, which he was looking forward to so much. While I was heartbroken, devastated, and traumatized to have to watch my dad die, he was completely at peace. He knew exactly where he was going. He was going to be with his Savior, with his parents, with my unborn brother I never got to meet.
You can’t deny that the world seems to be falling apart in 2020. A global pandemic, a violent and divided nation, floods and storms that are devastating the food supply. Plus, there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes that you aren’t going to hear about on the evening news. All of this has led me to look forward to heaven like never before. I think that’s partly why God allows bad things to happen in our lives. If our world was perfect, what need would we have for God and eternity with Him?
One day, and the signs are pointing to SOON, Jesus is going to return to establish His kingdom on earth. He will be triumphant over Satan. All believers in Christ will get to live forever in a world so amazingly wonderful, we can’t even imagine it.
I felt compelled to paint my lion dream again around Easter of this year. I wanted to make the scene more dramatic this time, so I painted a more triumphant lion and a glorious sunrise. As I worked, I thought about that wonderful sunrise on the original Easter morning, when Jesus triumphed over death. His resurrection 2,000 years ago points to the final resurrection, when “the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Now I have this painting hanging in my living room to remind me that this suffering will not last forever. Jesus, the Lion of Judah, will conquer death and the enemy. And how I look forward to that day!
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