Through The Needle’s Eye The Rich Man Came I

oil and wax on gold leafed panel
20 x 20 inches (22 x 22 gold floater frame)
$3500.00

The title is taken from  Suzanne Rhodes’ Advent poem, which continues to inspire me. It references the God who came to earth to suffer, “squeezing” through the needle’s eye that “pared his body down to thread. The impossible slit stripped him, allowing him to stitch the human breach.”

ADVENT
Through the needle’s eye the rich man came
Squeezing through stars of razor light
that pared his body down to thread.
Gravity crushed his heart’s chime
and his breath that breathed out worlds
now flatted as fire between walls.
The impossible slit
stripped him
admitting him
to stitch the human breach.

The lower part of this painting shows the suffering “rich man” who left heaven’s glory. His broken body is in agony. Forty tally marks refer to the time of earthly suffering. Above, the Father receives him back to glory. “Worthy are you, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power,”  (Revelation 4:11).