Thursday, February 14, 2008

 

How Will they Know Series

 

Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”  

 

My Mother’s Portrait

 

 

My mother wanted me to paint her portrait.  I agreed.  She proceeded to decide how she wanted it painted.   After deciding she changed her mind at least a dozen times.  

 

Ultimately, she decided she wanted it painted from a photo taken the day my wife and I married.  She told me how much she loved her mother-of-the-groom dress.   She said that day, next to Averette, she was the most beautiful woman in the room.   She said she thought she was even prettier than Averette’s mother.   In truth, Averette’s mother was stunning that day as well.   Nonetheless, this is what my mother thought and said.

 

Mom connected that day with one of the happiest days of her life.   May I interject that my Mom at 86 years old has lost her filter.   She said, with great feeling, “The day she married me off was one of the happiest days of her life.”   She said she was relieved that I chose Averette over any of my previous girlfriends.   She said that Averette was so sweet and I so adoring that our life together would always be happy-ever-after.  

 

The decision was made that I would paint that picture.   Mom was 58 years old at the time the photo was made.   She said she wanted to change a few things from the photo to the portrait.  She requested that the wrinkles on her face be removed and that the dark areas under her eyes be lightened.  She asked if I could make her hair blonder and the mole on the side of her nose disappear.  She said she wanted her smile to look sweet.  The main thing she wanted was to look like a movie star.  I told her I would try to honor her request but my plan was to paint her noble and happy.   She then insisted that, above all, she wanted the painting to be beautiful.  

 

I said, “Mom I love you just the way you looked that day.”  She said, “I’m an old, old woman, your mother.”   How could I forget?  She said, “I could die any day and if you do this little thing for me I will die happy.  All I want,” she emphasized, “is to look beautiful in my portrait!”  Of course, I complied.  The picture is beautiful.   But……it does not look at all like my mother!   She, however, thinks it’s the best likeness I have ever done!

 

Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”  

 

Prayer:

Dear God, help me to see myself the way I really am.  Amen.