A Praying Mother and a Paint Brush

"A rough sailor once stood alone before Munkacszy's great picture of

'Christ before Pilate.'

As he looked,

he could not turn away,

but stood there with his eyes fixed on that central figure

of majesty and love.

(painting source: Wikipedia)

In a few moments he took off his hat

and let it fall to the floor.

Then a little later

he sat down and picked up a book that described the picture,

and began to read; 

every few seconds his eyes would turn toward the canvas

and toward the figure of Christ.

The doorkeeper saw him lift up his hand and wipe away some tears.

Still he sat there

-five, ten, fifteen, sixty minutes-

as though he could not stir.

At last he arose, and, coming softly and reverently toward the door,

he hesitated, 

to take one last look,

and said to the woman who sat there,

"Madam, I am a rough, wicked sailor.

I have never believed in Christ;

I have never used His name,

except in an oath.

But I have a Christian mother,

who begged me to-day, before I went to sea,

to come and look at this picture of the Christ.

To oblige her I have come.

I did not think that anybody believed in Christ

but as I have looked at that form and that face

I have thought that some man must have believed in Him,

and it has touched me,

and I have come to believe in Him too."

O, beloved,

if a poor, weak man, living in a godless land,

could take his brush and preach on canvas,

and cause our Christ to glow upon it,

until a rude, licentious man was wont to believe in him,

what might not our God do if he might paint Christ in us

-nay, if he might reproduce Christ in a human life,

that the life might be Christ's, 

and that men might come to believe on him!"

-B. Fay Mills

From a devotional book that I enjoy called

FOR EACH NEW DAY

by Delavan L. Pierson  
(July 13, page 205)

There is always hope for the child

who has a praying mother.

Linking to these places: