The Lion and the Lamb

We organised a creative retreat yesterday on Silent Saturday for a group of creatives. Our facilitators, Estelle and Francesca led us in a series of reflective and prophetic activities through the entire afternoon.

One of them was blindfold painting. I had a vision of placing my entire hand on the paper plate where I had poured out five colours I liked, then sweeping my hand across the canvas. And I heard Him say, "Dance with me."

So I stood up and did just that! 

It was so much fun swaying along to the music playing in the background, not thinking about what the result would be. Such a stark contrast to my first experience in blindfold painting a few years ago, where I had been so worried about how the painting would turn out and didn't enjoy the process at all.

When I sensed that it was enough, I stopped and sat down. Then I heard Him say, "Look at your hand." So against Estelle's instructions (haha!) I took off my blindfold and looked at my hand.

First, I saw the golden heart shape. Then I realised there's a hole in it and immediately thought of Jesus' glory and His love for us displayed through His nail-pierced hands. What a beautiful reminder to continue reflecting on all that He had done for us on Good Friday the day before this.

When I looked at the painting on the canvas in landscape orientation, which was how I had painted it, I didn't see much in it. So I turned it around to portrait view.

I was struck by how the darker colours at the bottom rose up to the bright orange at the top, much like flames but also reminding me of beauty from ashes. 

Later, one of the participants at my table suggested that I should look at it from afar. That's when I saw the lion!

If you can't see where it is, the following comparison may help. During a recent trip to Jeju, Korea, I had been struck by one of the many lion paintings at the hotel where we stayed (Leo Hotel, and of course Leo means Lion in Greek!)

The lion in my painting is facing the same direction as the Jeju lion but has a more benevolent expression.

As I reflected on all this today, Resurrection Sunday, I'm amazed at how He led me to express the Easter message in this 2-in-1 painting. 

Firstly, the painted nail-pierced hand points to the lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7) and who was slain (Revelation 5:6). 

Then on the third day, He rose from the grave and now He is the lion of Judah who sits upon the throne in heaven (Revelation 5:5,7), as symbolised by the lion on the canvas.

And both the hand and the canvas were painted on at the same time, through one single process. That's just like how the Lion and the Lamb are one, and both are found in the same One, Jesus.

Furthermore, the process of letting go and allowing the Holy Spirit to direct the entire painting process is a lesson in learning to trust in God even in the midst of circumstances that are beyond our control. 

I'm not a skilled painter and there's no way I could have painted a lion from scratch on my own. But when I allowed Him to paint through me, this was the incredible outcome!

Jesus, the triumphant King, has already overcome the world. That's why we can have peace even though there will be trouble (John 16:33). And when we invite the Holy Spirit to take control, the same power that resurrected Christ is in at work in us (Ephesians 3:20) to overcome all things!

“Blessing and honor and glory and power

Be to Him who sits on the throne,

And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Revelation 5:13

See my previous entry with reflections for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

P.S. it's been 3 days and this morning I happened to glance at the painting from the breakfast table. The sunlight revealed the shiny crown on the lion's head! Can you see it too? Indeed, He is our Risen King!!

The Last Supper

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the painting, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see it depicted in 3D format at the Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju.

What caught my attention was not so much the figures around the table. Rather, it was the lone bear (person) peeping in from outside the door.  

I wonder what was holding him back from joining in the meal. Perhaps self-doubt, inferiority and insecurities? "I'm not good enough" or "I don't know enough" or " I've done too many bad things", and many other possible self-accusations could have immobilised him.

Many people are like that in real life too. They see all the good that believers do, and acknowledge the benefits of belonging to the Body of Christ. But they just don't feel that they are qualified to join in. 

Even among believers, some are reluctant to engage deeply with others in fellowship. It could be that they're afraid they'd be 'found out' - warts and all. Or perhaps they feel inadequate, and they must study the Bible some more before they can be ready to serve.

On the other hand, there are those who have come to the table eagerly. Yet they are also the ones who deny Christ and betray Him at times, like Peter (who denied he knew Jesus three times after Jesus' arrest) and Judas (who led the soldiers to arrest Jesus). In fact, I should change this to first person as none of us are perfect, hence there will definitely be times when we turn against Him and fall into sin.

However, regardless of whether we stand outside the door or used to be at the table but have fallen away, Jesus is beckoning us to come to the table.

The first ones He ate with after His resurrection were the unnamed disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). They weren't from His inner circle, and hadn't been at the Last Supper. 

There's no need to feel unworthy, for He welcomes and accepts everyone no matter who we are. No qualifications are needed as He has already given every person a free pass through the Cross.

As for Peter who had denied Him, Jesus also restored fellowship with him through a meal. He made breakfast for Peter and the other disciples present, before reaffirming their love for each other through the "Do you love me?" exchange (John 21:1-27).

Despite whatever we've done to let Him down, He receives us at the table each and every time we repent and turn back to Him. We don't need to carry our own guilt (so don't be like Judas), for He has borne all of it for us on the Cross.

Come to the table, one and all!

Then the owner of the house... ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.'

- Luke 14:21-23

See my next entry with further reflections on Easter or Resurrection Sunday.

A Prophetic Arts Prayer Trip... What's That???

It was already crazy enough when God said to prayer walk the land of Japan. I mean, how huge and outrageously expensive that would be!! But then He added on that He wanted it to be a prophetic arts trip too! Like, how many Christians even know what 'prophetic arts' means?! Who would come with me on this wild venture?? But within a week, He led me to three people who said they would pray about joining the team - and all of them are prophetic artists! So I had to say 'yes' to Him, and started preparing for the trip with much fear and trepidation... Firstly, Job wouldn't be able to come on the trip so I'd have to lead the team on my own. Secondly, I sensed that there would be some fierce warfare involved and I wasn't sure if I or the rest of the team would be ready for it. However, on both counts, God showed up and did all the hard work for us so we breezed our way through with great joy and celebration!

So how prophetic can the arts be?

God spoke to us so clearly through the arts. For instance, on our second day in Japan we had visited the Peace Memorial Park in Okinawa. There's an art gallery with a series of paintings by a particular artist on the theme of  'War and Peace'. I noticed that nearly every one of his paintings had similar wavy lines that looked like the wind.

I was especially struck by this piece which depicts the strength of the people in the face of hardship, as represented by the flowers that stand strong in the midst of the billowy winds. We had heard that we just missed a typhoon as we had arrived the day after it hit Okinawa. But little did we know that for the rest of the trip, God would protect us from two more typhoons - one changed direction midway and the other struck Tokyo the day before we landed there! So this painting was God's way of reassuring us that He would keep us safe even when typhoons are raging around us.

Then on another day, God prompted us to do team drawing so we all prayed and drew one picture each. Turned out that all the pictures formed a map for the rest of our trip as we kept seeing real-life representations of the things we had drawn thereafter! (I can only show you my picture as I don't have the other members' permission to show theirs...yet...)

We got to visit a pottery in Okinawa and through learning about the process of how clay is turned into ceramics, God also showed us many lessons about our Christian walk. The master potter was from the church we had just visited and as he was sharing about how he realised his true identity was to be found in Christ and not in culture or even the arts, I suddenly saw the link between his testimony and the impromptu dance that Aimee had presented in the church earlier on. The pastor (the potter's wife) had requested to see Aimee dance so she chose the song 'Who Am I' on the spot and improvised to it. Amazingly, God had already started speaking to us about our identity in Him through the dance and continued the same message during the potter's sharing.

 



God also spoke to others through us and the arts. At the church that was hosting us in Kyoto, we had presented the pastor with a postcard print of one of our team members, Chloe's painting, 'The Covenant'. The rainbow background reminded him of an actual rainbow that he had seen in the morning. It held special meaning to him as the church had just celebrated their 37th anniversary the day before. But he lamented that nobody else had seen the rainbow. We proceeded to get the four church members who were present to pick out one prophetic art card each from a bag and to our surprise, every single one of them received a picture with a rainbow! The probability of that happening was really very small as we had multiple copies of nearly 20 different pictures and only 3 of the pictures had rainbows. What's more, the next day when we met another church member and got him to pick a card, he got a rainbow picture too! So it was clear that God wanted to show the rainbow to the church members too, not just the pastor, in order to emphasise that He will keep His promises to the church.

On another occasion, Chloe was showing some missionaries-in-training the painting that God had inspired her to paint for and bring on our trip (you can also read about God's provision for her to come on the trip in her post). Through her explanation of how God wants to restore every nation, including Japan, He actually brought about reconciliation between a Korean believer and a Japanese believer who were listening to her!

The arts also helped to usher in great power to tear down strongholds. We were on our way to a place famous for its shrines and we were expecting a fierce spiritual battle there. However, a couple of days before the trip, God reminded us of how Jehoshaphat had won the battle through praise and worship (2 Chronicles 20:1-30). So throughout the 2.5-hour drive there, we kept singing song after song from our playlist and even added more songs to the list as they came to mind. When we finally arrived, we all sensed that God had already won the battle. He led us to a riverside instead of entering the shrine area, and released us to continue praising Him and making a joyful noise unto Him.

Don't forget God's masterpieces!

Of course, God also spoke to us wonderfully through His artworks painted in the skies and revealed through nature. Once when we had just finished praying, a butterfly landed on Jesse's thigh and rested there. Then on the day we did the team drawing, just as we had finished and were packing up, a butterfly hovered over Aimee's head for a while. To us, both incidents were signs of His presence with us.

On our first morning at Kyoto, I was woken up at 5.20am by a pink glow in the room. I looked out the window and for the next half an hour, witnessed the most amazing live painting with the clouds as His canvas. That was God's way of reminding me that I was indeed in the land of the rising sun, but also a confirmation of the word we had received earlier that the Son of Righteousness will rise over the land.

What about leading the team?

Well, my fears were unfounded, of course! I learnt to rely fully on God's prompting as He was the leader of our team, not me. Each time He prompted me or anyone in the team, there would be confirmation from the rest, and then we would act accordingly. Things would work out perfectly and we would even make pleasant discoveries along the way (one of them being the fantastically clear view of Mt Fuji even though it had been a cloudy day). However, the only time where the team disagreed and did not follow God's prompting led to a minor understanding with a couple of local people. But thankfully, when we admitted our mistake and apologised, things were quickly resolved.

To be honest, I hadn't been confident at all that the overwhelming itinerary (4 cities in 10 days, 6 flights and countless hours of driving) would be achievable, or that the crazy things (singing, dancing, playing instruments, flagging, bubbling, drawing, painting, giving out art cards) He had shown us to do during our trip would have any impact. But thankfully, my team members were willing to obey God's instructions and we got to experience incredibly divine things together!

The final confirmation that we had done everything right came when we saw this at the boarding gate of Sapporo airport as we were about to fly back to Singapore.

It's the same Hachiko dog that I had drawn (see earlier picture). But instead of waiting to hear the voice of his dead master, my picture shows the dog listening intently to his master's voice singing over him (with slight reference to the HMV dog who also happens to be listening to his dead master's recorded voice over the gramophone). When we incline our ears to listen to our Master, who is most definitely alive, we will find that:

The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Saimdang, Educational Reforms and the Class Divide

I know I promised there would be a second part to Love in the Moonlight in my previous post, but I just had to interrupt the series with another saeguk (period drama). That’s because soon after I had finished watching Saimdang: Memoir of Colours just last week, an online storm broke out over two issues which I realised were addressed in Saimdang. [Before I forget, you can watch the series legally (ha!) on Netflix.]

Although the series hadn't done so well in terms of its domestic ratings, I personally loved it for the breathtaking beauty portrayed through the magnificent scenery, the exquisite paintings, and even the painters' creative process. I also liked that there were strong female characters - Saimdang herself (Lee Young Ae, from the well-loved Dae Jang Geum aka Jewel in the Palace), and her childhood-friend-turned-nemesis Hwieumdang (Oh Yoon Ah) - and the redemptive element in their relationship. Towards the end, Hwieumdang repented of her scheming ways and saved Saimdang from her villainous husband's plot to kill Saimdang, Saimdang not only forgave her but healing and restoration came when Saimdang cared for Hwieumdang's children when she was in exile.

In fact, the entire series is an extended lobby for gender equality, with both Saimdang and her daughter Mae-chang fighting for recognition of their artistic talents in the royal court. With a bit of research, I found that the historical figure Sin Saimdang, on whom the drama is loosely based, was a bit of a non-conformist herself. She pursued her artistic and literary passions even though it was practically prohibited of women born in nobility. Not only is she one of the very few female painters recorded in Korean history, she is also revered as a model for all mothers. Both she and one of her sons, Confucian scholar Yi I, are commemorated on the ₩50,000 and ₩5,000 notes respectively.

Now, let’s talk about one of the recent uproars on local media. The Ministry of Education is revamping the examination structure in schools by reducing the number of exams students will take in their school career so they can be encouraged to develop a love for learning. There has been applause as well as opposition to the move. No matter what top-down changes are made, ultimately it’s the attitude on the ground, of parents and even students themselves, that must shift before real change can occur.

In the drama, Saimdang withdrew her son Hyeon-ryong (based on the real life Yi I) from the most prestigious school in the city even though he had passed a very difficult admission test. She had discovered that the parents and the students were fixated on results and student ranking, so much so that Hyeon-ryong was beaten up by Hwieumdang and her son after Hyeon-ryong ousted the boy from first place. The headmaster had tried to introduce creative teaching strategies to get the students to develop a sense of curiosity and learn through self-discovery. However, the parents went up in arms and demanded that he revert to the traditional rote learning methods. Furthermore, Saimdang overheard Hyeon-ryong cornering the teacher in class with his trick questions. Once they got home, she reprimanded him for showing off his intelligence by trying to outsmart the teacher. She emphasised the need for good character above talent and intelligence, and concluded that she would teach him herself at home.

Meanwhile, Saimdang’s eldest son Seon confided hesitantly in her that he would like to become a blacksmith instead of continuing with his studies, but was worried that she would feel ashamed of him. To his surprise, Saimdang encouraged him to find his own path and not feel burdened to follow what society expected of him. She elaborated on how the many different occupations are equally important and all help to contribute to the community in their own ways. Subsequently, Saimdang set up a school in their village which welcomed children of all social classes and abilities and every child was encouraged to develop their unique talents. The children had so much fun learning and exploring together that some of the students from the top school even ‘dropped out’ with their parents’ blessings so as to join her school.

The other contentious topic has been about the class divide in Singapore. Accusations are rife online of how there is a lack of social mixing in the community while elitism is being promoted in schools, and the welfare of the lower classes is being ignored by the government. Again, regardless of whatever policies and welfare programmes there may or may not be, we need to have people who will be counter-culture and make attempts to cross the divide and blur the lines separating the different classes for social stratification to be torn down.

Whereas the servants in other households were treated as nameless and faceless almost sub-human creatures, Saimdang regarded her servant girl Hyang-i as one of her own children. Hyang-i would be included in family discussions with her opinions taken into consideration, she sat together with the family during meals, and everyone chipped in with the housework rather than order her around for every little task. (Hyang-i is at the far left and far right of the pictures below.)

After a boy tried to rob Saimdang, she followed him home as he said he needed money to buy medicine for a sickly grandfather. This led to her discovery of a group of starving gypsies living in caves near her paper mill. She immediately cooked some food and fed them, then invited them to work in her mill with the promise that she would split the earnings equally with them. Despite her noble background, she lived and worked among them, and was the first to start every morning and last to pack up at night. She was always polite and respectful, even though the gypsy boy had tried to rob her and some of the other gypsies had initially been suspicious of her and spoken rudely to her.

Saimdang also influenced others to look beyond class distinctions. For instance, she involved her children in the work at the paper mill and in the process, they learnt not to judge anyone based on their class or background. Another noblewoman joined her at the mill to cook and serve food to the workers. The policy at the mill was that whoever had done some work would be given free meals. When the crown prince visited the mill incognito together with another nobleman, they even offered to wash the dishes in order to be able to eat with the workers!

So let’s take a leaf from Saimdang’s book. Rather than point fingers at the government or at society about the ills of the education system or the widening class divide, remember that change really starts with individuals - you and me - who dare to live and act according to our beliefs, whether it’s to focus on character-building, promote a love for learning or bridge the social gap. And sooner or later, there will be a ripple effect as more and more people are affected, and that’s when culture shifts.

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_Saimdang

2. "Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c.1500-1900" edited by Melia Belli Bose