I just love how God loves to surprise us!
He always manages to catch my breath with the unexpected, out of the blue, jaw dropping twists and turns that He brings my way.
When we walk in step with the Spirit, it's a remarkable adventure.
When we step out in faith, we know He's gone before us, He goes behind us and is right there with us.
This has been a rather remarkable week!
Last Sunday, when I was washing the dishes I was just thinking about the 'be like Bill' meme that everyone was sharing on Facebook.
I just felt God reminded me that we should be like Jesus.
And the idea came, to draw a stickman picture, with simple words of truth. After 20 minutes (of mostly deliberating about the wording) it looked like this:
After a quick prayer, I posted it first in our lovely Bible Art Journaling UK Facebook group to 'test the waters', once I could see that some of my friends here liked it, I felt just about brave enough to share it in a couple of other Christian groups - 'Captivated' for Christian women in the UK and 'Journaling Bible Community'.
And that's when it took off...literally. I mean, it went viral!
I was looking at my iPad and the 'like' and 'shared' notification counter was literally going ping!ping!ping! All evening! And for the next few days, this simple picture has been sharing the simple gospel truth around Facebookland, Instagram and Twitter, I mean it even has a hashtag! #belikejesus. At last estimate it would be at least well over 100,000 likes and shares. Not that I'm counting ;-) but I have to admit that it was surreal and extraordinary and completely unexpected. I am just so humbled that God would use this simple sketch in this way.
And I particularly love that he used the most simple thing I have
ever drawn. When I think about the hours and hours I've poured into other Bible Art pieces, artwork and journaling, but no, it's the stickman that gets His message out there! :-) I mean, I didn't even do any proper hand lettering on it! But isn't that just what God loves to do? To use the most ordinary for His extraordinary works.
So looking back, I remember that on that particular Sunday morning I had specifically prayed for opportunities, whatever they may look like, and also I put on my shoes of the gospel of peace and I prayed that I would not be ashamed of the gospel. So I'm thankful for a very surprising answer to prayer - He is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine! And I'm looking to continue to follow His direction, to make the most of every opportunity.
All for His glory!
Let's be like Jesus.
P.S. Please feel free to share this 'Be Like Jesus' picture on social media, use in churches and outreach, copy into your Journaling Bible, and it’s fine for general reasonable use, without any copyright or acknowledgement needed. Just please don’t make or sell stuff with this image without asking me first. Thank you!
Image & design (c) Deborah Jane Gregg 2016
