God With Us

GOD WITH US

Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravians, was converted in an art gallery in Dusseldorf while contemplating a painting of Christ on the cross which had the inscription, "I did this for thee. What hast thou done for me?" This picture had been painted by an artist three hundred years before.

When he had finished his first sketch of the face of the Redeemer, this artist called in his landlady’s little daughter and asked her who she thought it was. The girl looked at it and said, "It is a good man." The painter knew that he had failed.

He destroyed the first sketch and, after praying for greater skill, finished a second. Again he called the little girl in and asked her to tell him whom she thought the face represented. This time the girl said that she thought it looked like a great sufferer. Again the painter knew that he had failed, and again he destroyed the sketch he had made.

After meditation and prayer, he made a third sketch. When it was finished, he called the girl in a third time and asked her who it was. Looking at the portrait, the girl exclaimed, "It is the Lord!"

That alone makes the coming of Christ meaningful to the world--not that a good man came, not that a wise teacher came, not that a great sufferer came, but that God came--Immanuel, God with us.

(From a sermon by Joshua Hetrick, "The Superiority of Christ Priesthood" 7/4/2009)