Theft of Human Artwork

Theft of Human Artwork

4/26/14

No matter what others may say, all of us will leave some type of mark on the world when our physical lives have ended.  It does not matter if we are rich, famous or just another everyday “Joe or Jane” who graces the same hallway for years upon end, this fact remains true.  Each one of us represents an individual piece to this puzzle called life and each of us plays an equal part in its fitting and completion.  It is very important for us to understand that we cannot complete these vital roles in the world if we allow ourselves to be taken apart bit by bit.  That is why it is also imperative that we understand that we must not allow our enemy to trick us into involuntarily or voluntarily giving up our lives for the common good of the world.  We are unique in every way imaginable and it through this uniqueness that God uses to be a light unto the world, not for us to allow the world to take it away from us.

For as long as I can remember I have dedicated my mind, heart, and soul to the medical field.  I have ignored many other areas of the human’s interests and basically focused my entire being to healing people.  However, the things that I have been taught over the past few years is that each person is an individual piece of artwork that can never be duplicated and while I admit that not every painting, drawing or portrait catches the inner portions of my heart and soul, I must acknowledge that God is showing me things about the individual that gives me a better understanding of why we can be classified as artwork and also how we are voluntarily allowing our lives (artwork) to be whisked away and destroyed in a systematic manner.  I must acknowledge that if God has a specific plan for each one of our lives this means that each person is an individual and unique piece of art that may appeal to one group of people yet not so much to another.  But this is where the beauty of this fact arises, in that since there are billions of us walking on this earth the potential for someone affecting another person or group of people is far greater than with only a select few people.  However it is imperative that we understand that no matter how we view each work of art that all of us have a responsibility to “sell” ourselves to a dying world.

Ever travel down the same path over and over?  We call ourselves seeing everything that can possibly be noticed on our repeated path but at some point you realize something different?  I was walking down one of the hallways in the hospital a while back and I noticed that there was a painting on the wall that had been taken down.  This particular painting had been present on the wall ever since we had reopened the building for the additional hospital services.  This hallway is located in the building that I work in and I pass through this hallway at least twenty times throughout my work day.  I cannot specifically state that I noticed this specific painting each time I made my way down the hall but I can say that the day I noticed the painting missing.  There was an empty space present and it did not take me too long to figure out that a painting was missing.  I am not going to say that it was stolen or that it has been placed into another portion of the building but it did bring into my heart a perfect example of one’s identity being lifted from its proper place.  Whichever the case may have transpired the work of art is missing from its intended place and the original placement is bare without its individual work.

Paintings and art work have drawn the fiercest critics and at the same time brought the preeminent competitors for centuries.  Anyone who knows a thing or two about the art world understands that each painting or drawing portrays a story, usually one that the artist is trying to convey about her or himself.  Whether a painting represents a portion of the artist’s life, a picture of one of their lovers or tries to convey the serene setting of a spring day the price of the art and the dedication that it took to create the painted image always makes the work priceless to the one who completed the work.  It does not matter if the entire public views the work as a masterpiece or not, the creator artist knows that the finished work is a masterstroke of genuine beauty.  It also does not matter what one says about the creation the master will stand by the work until the day comes that the subject of that beauty lives no more.  Then comes the true testament of the artwork for even though the subject of the painting is gone the frame and the portrait itself shall always remain.

When a person views a piece of art they may draw their own conclusions about the worth of the piece.  I understand this concept because some of the works of art that don our halls are nicely priced and when I look at them, then notice the price I politely and quietly continue my journey down the hall.  On this side of the coin it is hard for me to understand why a piece of artwork values for so much money, but this example of my lack of knowledge is exactly what I wish to convey to those who do not understand this side of our lives.  The artwork is not always worth much in monetary terms but the sentimental value of the piece cannot be measured in terms of value since the importance of the artwork is a cornerstone of the person’s existence. 

The artwork defines this person and it is a portion of their lives that they look at on a daily basis for remembrance, guidance and love of life.  It has a deep meaning in which if taken cannot be substituted for and surely cannot be replaced with another gratuitous replica.  This artwork can only be described as you, and individual masterpiece that is made up of ideas, concerns, emotions, and feelings of all types which are wrapped up into one complete person.  And we need each part of our lives to be intact in order to function as a human being so that we can defend ourselves when we are attacked or to love completely when that one person comes along in our lives that sweeps us off our feet and it also allows us to discern when the times are true and when they are false.

As I have alluded to in the above paragraphs, you are an individual that has no equal.  Just as a single piece of artwork, each person that has had the opportunity to understand life represents this type of perfect construction.  Since I am comparing a human being to a priceless work of art, this means that all of the surrounding circumstances of our lives should account for something as well.  Ever heard of an art heist?  If a person or group of thieves values a physical work of art enough to steal it, the potential monetary value of such works could bring literally millions to certain markets around with world.  So, why wouldn’t one believe that your life be just as important stolen also?  There have been numerous books, movies, short stories and music written and composed about this topic, which in itself has attracted many millions of dollars.  I guess this means that there are plenty of people out in the world that wish to steal your inner and outer portions of your artwork which would effectively tarnish your portrait as well; and that is exactly what our eternal enemy wishes to accomplish in our lives.  

Some of you might remember that I am a huge World War II buff and that I cannot get enough information about any topic on the subject.  It has amazed me of how many different areas of WWII there are which do not include the actual blood and guts of combat that is usually discussed in books or viewed on television series.  It was few years ago that I had finally grasped the notion that art played a huge role in the Nazi regime and that they actually fancied the artwork of other nations and plotted ways to obtain these priceless works of art even before the war broke out.  When a person completes a painting or other work of art it comes from their heart but when a person who is driven by greed or lust looks upon this pure work of art, it only wants one thing and hat is to take it from its rightful place.  This is exactly what the Nazi party did with tens of thousands of art treasures and even today there are still thousands of art collections that are unaccounted for because of this type of thievery.

I had read a few articles on how the Nazis had taken some pictures and other works of art from Jewish houses, businesses and communities when they deported them to their new “work” environments, and when these people were taken from their homes and other living environments they were instructed to leave the majority of their belongings in place and that these items would be there when they returned from their newly found work.  These acts continued to baffle me that these people did not intimately question the fact that they were being loaded up into large trucks by the hundreds and that they could not understand what actually was occurring to their lives.  These people actually believed what the soldiers or other agents told them about their belongings and about their immediate living situations so they allowed themselves to be taken away from their possessions.  The Jews were actually being led away from their possessions to go to another place of residence while the ones who “showed” them to their new places of residence stole every bit of valuable possessions from their homes, villas and communities.

It took a while before God showed me the correlation of this type of activity and how it is relevant to our individual lives today.  While the Holocaust and slavery of the Jewish people proved to be a horrific event in human history that type of holocaust is currently ongoing in our lives today.  We have allowed this type of thievery to take place in our lives in the name of freedom, choice, and rights.  We have placed so much emphasis on ourselves and what we personally want in life that we have forgotten what the laws of the world really stand for.  It is these laws that we are bowing ourselves down to and voluntarily giving up our inner ink that we need to paint our artwork.  The world does not care about our lives nor does it wish to help us out in any way.  It will take from us our inner strength and give us heartache and pain in return for our precious inner paint.

We read almost every day that somewhere in our country a house, group of houses, local store or like in our nearby town that a bank was robbed.  These acts of theft are so common now that many of them do not make the daily or evening news and they must be placed on one of the back pages of the local or city newspaper.  Why is a theft of another person’s property become so unimportant and not worthy of front page headlines?  It is because the world must indulge itself on stealing just enough from humans that we do not realize it until it is too late to recover what is lost.  In other words, a small portion of the paint needed for our personal portrait has been taken from the human, so small a one that we do not realize that it is gone until we need it for something.  See, our lives are alive and in constant design and if we allow our enemy to continually take from our lives, then we shall never know or understand what our portrait can represent to others.

I remember a story about when I lived in Salinas, California.  I was only in the third grade but I did kind of know what was going on around me.  I remember that I received a bike as a gift for some occasion.  I loved that bike it got me around the neighborhood faster than I could ever have walked and it was great to ride along the sidewalks with my friends.  Salinas was not the best of places back in the 70s and to be honest I do not know about now either.  However, my parents at that time always told me not to leave my toys, books, or in this case my bike out where someone could take it if I were to be called away for some reason.  Well, one time I was riding around the neighborhood and my parents asked me to go somewhere with them for a few minutes.  I said that I needed to put my bike up but they said it would be fine right up next to the garage, so I left it there.

We were not gone very long but when we returned my bike was gone and it was nowhere to be found.  We looked for it for hours and did not even see a trace of it.  I was devastated about my loss and my parents felt terrible.  Circumstances happened and someone stole my bike and I knew that my parents and I would not ever make that mistake again.  I do not hold my parents in contempt for any reason and that is not part of the topic of the article, the theft of the bike is and how even though the object of importance is in close proximity to you the object can still be stolen without warning.

We have seen many movies and documentaries about people who run drugs throughout the world.  We have also witnessed standoff between police and burglars and you can throw in bank robbers into that mix.  We sit in amazement to watch a person or people defend their actions after they have demanded another person’s possessions or after the act of theft has occurred.  I myself sat fascinated one day as I watched a man repeatedly shoot at police officers after he had attempted to rob a bank in a certain community.  The event did not end until the man ran out of ammunition and was changing firearms when the police had no other option than to end this man’s life.  Think about this setting for a moment and try and understand that when our enemy approaches us this is exactly what he is trying to accomplish.  He cares nothing about you or what your surroundings offer, all he wants is for you to be destroyed and taken out of this world before you can complete your perfect portrait and present it to the world.

The person or people who take things from you are willing to fight for their actions.  When you try and claim your own belongings they will threaten you and even kill you if necessary.  A small town Mexican mayor found this out a couple of a while back when she was beaten to death in what is considered to be a drug related case in which she stood up for her beliefs against drugs being ran through her community.  The enemy will stand up for themselves when the wronged person actually tries to correct the situation.  But why were these people allowed to control the situation and take things from her and the community that they were operating within?  I do not know many details about this woman’s life but I wonder if her portrait was completed according to her inner ink and what God had for her life before she met Him face to face?  What permanent legacy did she leave for her family and community?  This is why it is so important that we understand that we are unique for a reason and it is for this reason alone that our enemy will take our inner ink and paints.

Now to the point of this article and that would be you and I.  Our enemy has stolen many aspects of our lives and we have not stopped long enough to realize what is actually missing from our inner beings.  Pieces of your life have been taken from you without you even knowing that you were even considered being a target.  We have allowed our lives to become so busy and distracted that we have forgotten to turn our alarms on when we are going about our business.  It is ironic because we have devoted so much attention to our outer bodies that we have totally ignored our enemy walking into our hearts and robbing us blind of what actually defines our lives.  All of these things have been taken because we have not read about our enemy and what he wishes to accomplish and one of the main things he wishes to accomplish is to steal your life away from you and rendering you torn apart.  He does not care about how much he takes from you nor does he care about how you will feel afterwards all he wants is what God has given you as a life and as a human being.  We are a living portrait, artwork if you wish to describe it, that God has created and each one of us has a specific purpose for our design.

All of these pieces that our enemy has taken from you, we have allowed to be voluntarily stolen and he has no intentions of returning them to you.  In fact he will fight you with all his might when you realize what is actually been taken.  This is a hard situation to go through for all of us realize that at some point in our lives we stop and look around and realize just what we have lost due to our lack of understanding of our enemy.  For many of us, we never have understood who our enemy was for we have not believed in his existence.  This is the perfect setup for the human being because if one does not believe in an enemy then he has legal and free will to our lives and he will take full advantage of this fatal misunderstanding.  Our enemy does not care anything about you.  He is only out to destroy you from the inside out since he knows that your body is already doomed the only thing that is eternal is your spirit and that is what he steals from on a continual basis.

In every case that I am aware of, including mine, each person has stated in their own words that they feel like they have been violated or feel dirty in some manner.  Their privacy has been invaded and probably many other descriptions could be used.  It is then that the realization that someone has taken a part of them that now cannot be truly replaced.  I also understand that even if the items that have been stolen are recovered many of the people that have been robbed do not want them back due to the dirty feeling that the get when they look at the items.  This too can be related to the things that have been stolen from our inner lives.  This feeling that we have is a prime example that God is a complete God and that when He formed us He understood our potential and the service that we could provide to the world.  It is this completeness of God that our enemy seeks out and tries to wipe out from our life.

Here is a truth that we all need to understand.  If we continue to allow our enemy to take from us what is not his and then continue to deny that his presence exists, then we must realize that once a part of our unique artwork is stolen from us we cannot get that portion back.  It is gone forever and will never be a part of more than our thoughts and wishes.  Everything that God designed us to be is stored within our lives and while we might not totally understand all of its capacities within our lives, it is there and in God’s timing He will show each one of us why He placed that ink or paint within our lives.  But if we continue to deny His presence and the presence about our enemy our lives will be ripped apart by the choices that we make and the allowances of thievery that we voluntarily give forth.

However, there is a process in which those stolen pieces of artwork can be restored into our lives once again.  They are our pieces of artwork that only one person can provide us with.  God understands our lives and He knows the exact damage that we have allowed to occur within our lives.  God is a complete God and He knows exactly where we are at, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Only God can restore the ink, paint and tools that we need to complete our personal portrait.  If we try to accomplish this work we shall fail every time and end up hurting ourselves even more, for we cannot place nor replace the necessities that are required for our personal painting.  Yes, God installs these within our lives and even if we allow our enemy to take them from us God can replace them in the proper order that we need to begin our masterpiece once again.  Some of these paints and inks might be a little different and the may be the same, but whatever way God chooses to replace them know that each instrument of your portrait is specifically selected and spiritually made for you and you alone.

We now need to stop and look at our inner beings, our spirit, to see what damage has been allowed to occur and then once we have assessed the damage we do not need to be ashamed of our mistakes but we do need to understand what has taken place and what actually has been lost and when this realization occurs, we cannot help but feel these emotions.  God has not left us while we were being robbed, He allowed us to make the choices concerning our lives on our own.  He has not left us and He shall never leave us.  He stands ready to restore what has been lost as long as we come to Him with an honest and open heart.  It is a learning process and the restoration will not be completed overnight but I can guarantee that once you accept the process you will feel the repairs that are ongoing within our life and it will not be too long until you see your inner paints at work once again.

DLB