My First Icon

 

Icon of the Risen Christ in a Mural, Rincon, GA, 2004

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West)

In the Spring of 2004, our youth group painted our meeting room, and these were the murals we created together. I found the icon of the Risen Christ very moving, and would sit in the room and just look at it for hours during devotions or quiet prayer. 

It was at this time that I realized that icons weren’t idols, but a way to focus on truth and remember God’s Presence. They were painted over shortly after I left, but I still hold these pictures as treasures among my personal things, remembering how they helped me to understand a theology of being, representation, and imagination that informs everything I do now! 

Christians do not worship images, but God fills the images in our minds with His grace, whether reading the Scripture or recounting the Gospel to others and our personal stories of His faithfulness, and uses them to sanctify us and make us more like Jesus. Whether portraits in our homes, or pictures in our heads, God uses depiction to communicate His plan of salvation!

A World in Need of a Savior