CHRISTIAN FINE ART GALLERY > SPIRITUAL WARFARE, VICTORY, FREEDOM, HEALING SERIES > Please Let Me Love Your Pain Away
Original Artwork: SOLD, Graphite, Image size: 34.5 cm x 26.5cm (13.5″ x 10.5″)
This quick sketch came out of a dream in which God showed me how much he loves us and how he will stop at nothing to heal us from all the pain in our lives.
Artist’s Reflection:
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me…He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt.” (Jeremiah 31:3-4)
“…whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37)
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
“Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
This drawing was inspired by a dream God gave me about his immense, incessant love for us.
(In my dream the Lord was in the form of another person. I knew it was the Lord and not somebody else. As I re-tell this dream, I refer to this person as “the Lord” even though it was another person. I think that, symbolically, when we Christians allow the Holy Spirit to minister the love of God through us, Jesus is reaching a hurting world through us.)
My dream:
There was a young woman who was not coping with the pain, stress and difficult circumstances in her life. She was very distressed and was trying to hold herself together, but everything was way too much for her. She was breaking apart. The Lord was very concerned for her and earnestly offered to help her, but the woman rejected it.
Later in the dream the woman was even more distressed and in pain to the point of having a complete breakdown. The Lord was very concerned and alarmed in his heart over all her pain and distress for he loved her so dearly. He earnestly kept pleading with her to let him love her and help her, but she rejected every offer he made.
She tried to be strong in herself and kept trying to get away from him. She wanted to be alone and privately try to bear all her overwhelming grief and stress. A few other people, members of the woman’s family, were also trying to help her, but she kept trying to get away from them and handle everything on her own.
The other people struggled to keep up with the woman as she fled from them, but the Lord kept up with her. The Lord ran and ran after her relentlessly. I perceived that he would not stop pursuing her until she let him love her and comfort her with his love. “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).
At one point, the woman turned around, and I saw her physical appearance had really deteriorated (which I believe was symbolic of what the pain was doing to her heart and soul inwardly). She looked completely decrepit and very worn down by her grief. She was now hunchbacked and limping, and her face had transformed into a face of agony.
When the woman turned around she confronted the Lord and the others who were pursuing her and told them off in anger to stop following her and to leave her alone. From that point on I did not see any other people continue to run after her, only the Lord.
He was not deterred at all by her harsh rejection of him and her hardened heart towards him. In fact, rejection didn’t even enter his mind. All he could think about was the pain and distress she was in, for he loved her immensely and wanted to heal all her pain and for her to feel his great love for her.
He wanted to love all her pain away, and I knew he would never stop until she yielded to that love and was fully healed.
As she ran around a bend she did a strange thing. She turned around and confronted the Lord again, but this time she offered him an extravagant, expensive gift that cost her a lot of money. However, the gift was a completely ridiculous, superfluous item that the Lord found no particular pleasure in.
Why did she do this?
I think it was because she realized her hardened heart was weakening and softening by the persistence of his love, and she wasn’t going to be able to evade it for much longer. She realized she would soon be captured and would be too weak to resist him anymore. Knowing that an encounter with God’s love was imminent and unavoidable, I think she felt completely unworthy of his unconditional love. She felt she could not freely receive it but had to earn it in some way. For that reason, she resorted to giving the Lord something grand in order to make herself feel worthy of receiving his love. I perceived that the giving of this expensive gift was her last, great attempt to earn the Lord’s love. However, her gift was of no consequence to the Lord. He did not want anything from her. He only wanted to love her and heal her; he wanted her to be OK.
The woman was now sitting down and the Lord fell down on his knees and put his arms around her. Her heart was rapidly softening and her defenses were rapidly weakening under his immense love. The Lord’s face was tenderly close to her face, and he was crying for he fully empathized with all her pain and distress. He wanted so strongly to heal her and to take her pain away with his love.
The woman was exhausted from resisting and running away from God and she began to collapse under the weight of his love for her. She broke down and began to cry as she finally began to yield to his love.
The Lord said to her, “I really want you to know how much…… He loves us, Oh, how he loves us, Oh, how he loves us, Oh, how he loves…”
He loves us, Oh, how he loves us, Oh, how he loves us, Oh, how he loves are the lyrics to a song called “How He Loves” By John Mark McMillan. At the exact same time the Lord began singing this song to the woman, the woman also began singing it with him.
She finally yielded to his incessant, unconditional love for her. The Lord was holding her hands and crying with her in all her pain and weakness. Love poured out of his heart for her like a flood. He was setting forth to heal her, comfort her, and help her.
He began to love all her pain away and would continue to do so until she fully rested in his love and was completely healed of all her pain and hurt.
The song “He Loves Us”
The story behind the song “He Loves Us”
(The drawing: “The Parable of The Lost Sheep” (Events of The Bible Series) was also somewhat inspired out of this dream).
See also:
You Have Turned My Mourning Into Dancing (Believer’s Road Series 2)
Broken Wings Learning to Fly Again (Spiritual Warfare, Victory, Freedom, Healing Series)