IT ALL STARTED WITH a leaking overhead pipe in my basement. My son just happened to be visiting from Alaska this spring when he heard water running. Unfamiliar with sprinklers going on late at night, his search led him to a growing puddle in my storeroom. He contacted a plumber who later fixed the leak, and we avoided a catastrophe!

Last week, I decided on some preventative medicine. Years ago, Conrad built a 3X5 ft. platform in the corner of our storeroom. To protect my paintings, I moved them on top of the platform and stored waterproof containers beneath it. 

Of course, catching the “while I’m at it syndrome,” I discovered a small plastic box of rodenticide pellets when I reorganized and swept. I carefully picked up the box and looked for another good place to put them. Suddenly, a scrunched corner of the box popped back, spraying little green poison pellets all over the room! My “velcro” pups are always with me, but thankfully not at that moment! I shut the door to keep them out before meticulously sweeping under, around, and behind everything. 

In the past, mice found their way into our storeroom, so Conrad had set a trap over the unfinished door frame. I had since placed a sticky trap next to it. So, standing on a small stool, I reached over the door frame to make room for the refilled pellet box. Suddenly, “SNAP!” Again, pellets flew through the air! At least the sprung trap held no mouse—dead or alive! All this to tell you that when I finally got to my box of paintings, I discovered a 2×3 ft. acrylic painting I had forgotten about. Years ago, Revelations 1-2 inspired me to paint it. 

So, I reread that passage. Imprisoned on the Island of Patmos, John was in the Spirit and heard a loud voice like a trumpet. He turned and saw seven golden lampstands and “someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev 1:13-16). 

John sees this amazing Jesus and falls at His feet like a dead man! But Jesus lays His right hand on him and says, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I’m alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades” (vs. 17-18). He then tells John to write what he sees and says, “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (v. 20). Then Jesus speaks to each church with commendations and warnings in the next chapter.

So back to the poison. “Most domestic rat and mouse poisons are anticoagulants; they affect the rodent’s blood, reducing the ability of blood to clot so that exposed rodents bleed internally and die.” I realized the poison flying all over the room provides a terrible picture of the poison of Satan’s lies and deceptions spreading worldwide. Many lies fall out in the open, but other deceptions hide in and around, under and behind everything.

Rodenticides kill rodents, pets, and people. Sin kills people. James 1:14-16 says, “Each one is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Though sinlessly perfect, that same amazing Jesus took the poison into Himself and died a  horrible death, hemorrhaging for us on the cross. He offers His pure and holy blood in exchange for our poisoned blood. Each of us has eaten the poison, bleeds internally, and will die. 

But God made a way to save us from that death. We only need to receive the gift of His Son into our hearts. It’s so simple, yet so impossible in ourselves. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). God draws us to Himself through Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

Graham Kendrick wrote, “Only by grace can we enter, only by grace can we stand. Not by our human endeavor, but by the blood of the Lamb. Into Your presence You call us, You call us to come. Into Your presence You draw us, and now by Your grace we come.”

Though this painting went through a complete transformation since I found it, there is no way I can paint what John saw in heaven! However, as I continued to work on this seemingly impossible task, I asked God for wisdom. He says in James 1:5-7 that if we ask for wisdom, we must believe and not doubt, or we can’t expect anything from the Lord. So, I decided to trust Him to do something with it, and before long, it came together. That amazing Jesus sent us an intense and pertinent message in the book of Revelation for such a time as this. 

Songwriter, Mark Altrogge, studied the attributes of God and wrote these words:

You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words, too wonderful for comprehension like nothing ever seen or heard. Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom? Who can fathom the depth of Your love? You are beautiful beyond description. Majesty enthroned above.

You are beautiful beyond description, Yet God crushed You for my sin, In agony and deep affliction, Cut off that I might enter in. Who can grasp such tender compassion? Who can fathom this mercy so free? You are beautiful beyond description, Lamb of God who died for me!

I stand, I stand in awe of You. I stand, I stand in awe of You. Holy God, to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of You.

Join me in worshipping the precious Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29) and commends and warns His beloved Church to prepare for His promised coming! (Rev. 2).