The Most Beautiful Ikon

My ten year old son painted this shell for me.  The cross-shaped figure at the top is Jesus.

My son has epilepsy.  His seizures in recent years have been under control, but he cannot properly process language.  He can communicate and understand many things, but only in his own unique way.

This shell is one of the most precious gifts I’ve ever received.  It points in to the one who is beyond language, beyond “normal” syntax, beyond appearances.  That one looks out from it over the whole world, his arms outstretched from the cross to embrace and take back into it all of creation’s groaning.