This is a painting by Holman Hunt. There's actually two of them;he painted the first and then he painted the second because Keeble College in Oxford did not hang it in the part of the chapel he wanted it to be hung at. the first one is at Keeble College, and the second one is in St.Paul's Cathedral in London,England.
As weird as this sounds, this painting means a lot to me because I am convinced that God send me this painting; He wanted me to love this painting. here's the story: While I was in Oxford spring 2009 i did a program called the Alpha Program. it is a program where people learn about Christianity, but the format is kinda unique. you start out with a dinner together, then afterward you have the "lecture" or "talk"as they called it in Oxford. after the lecture you went to your group(in this program everyone was assigned groups for the duration of the program)and you discussed that week's lecture. the program lasted 6 weeks in total and it was a good program. one night during the discussion part of the evening one of the ladies talked about this painting that was her favorite(I can't recall what we were talking about). She said that it was Jesus standing in front of a door, knocking, and the door did not have a doorknob. she said she had never seen the actual painting only pictures of it. I loved the sound of it and was interested, so I went home and looked it up and I completely fell in love with it! a few weeks after that, during my HUM 222 (the 6credit hour class of English and history I took) the teacher brought up this painting! it was like a sign God was sending me. a few weeks after that, during my Oxford Through The Ages class we went to Keeble college and that's where one of these two paintings was!so I got to see this painting in real live!that was so beyond awesome! it is a beautiful painting. then I did a combined tour of St.Paul's and the Tower of London(Evan Evans Tours-highly recommend them!) and so I got to see the second painting of this painting! the second one was a bit bigger, and I only got to see it for a second coz i had to keep up with the group and also because I think the area around it was blocked off a bit but it was so amazing! I love that I got to see both of these paitings.
I love this painting because it reminds me that Jesus never forces anything on us, including Himself. He doesn't want us to Love and Follow Him simply because we feel we have no choice but because we want to. I especially love that the door does not have a doorknob. it reinforces the idea that Jesus could knock that door down, barge His way in, and make us do whatever He wants us to do. but he doesn't. the son of God stands outside our door, knocking for us to open the door. I find that amazing; He knocks and waits for as long as it takes me to open that door. It was good timing, this painting coming into my life because I had just gotten baptized a few months earlier and so it was a good strong reminder that I chose this, I chose to open the door and let Him in. He didn't force me. it helps me somehow, whenever I am having trouble trusting God, when I find it hard to trust Him, or when God is doing something in my life that I don't want Him to be doing, to remember that I chose this. I opened the door. it's also cool the setting of the picture, the door is covered with Ivy, the background shows nothing else but trees around. I always think that this is a door of that house that you pass by or see in movies where it is in the middle of nowhere and no one really bothers with or cares about it. yet, Jesus is. He's standing at this door of this house that most people would probably stop to stare at and specualate then move on, and He's knocking.
I guess you could say this painting is the one I go to and think about whenever I start doubting Jesus or having a tough time trusting Him.
on a brighter lighter side, I love this painting because it led to the one time where I actually knew something about the bible that Brent Bailey did not!see, this painting was based on the Revelation 3:20 verse above and when I told Brent about this painting I mentioned that and he said that there was no such verse in the bible, and so I looked it up in bible gateway, send it to him, and Voila! I corrected him!I knew something that he didnt! :) :) I was so excited! lol lol
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