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Description
Many years ago, my mother asked me to draw a picture of her for her birthday. She wanted Jesus in the image in some way, but she had no specifications as to how.

As you've no doubt guessed by now, the young girl in the picture is my mother, based on an old photo I found of her at age twelve (circa 1959). Jesus is hugging her, as a father would hug his daughter.

My mother and my grandfather had a very strained relationship; a veteran of World War II's Pacific Theater, he was often drunk, surly, unsupportive of her, and sometimes very verbally abusive, and she was the unfavored middle child as well. She grew up longing for a true father figure in her life. This longing led her into the arms of several different men throughout her life, but they all turned out to be drunkards, abusive in many respects, or both... just like her biological father. When she realized that her choices in men were continuing a terrible cycle, she gave up trying to find a husband and devoted her life to the Lord. In Him, she found the loving, ever-present Father figure she had been seeking. This was the aspect of Adonai -- "Our Father, Who Art in Heaven" -- that I was trying to emphasize in the finished work (which is currently in my sister's care).

My mother passed away on 29 October 2008. Requiescat in pace, Mater.

Description
Many years ago, my mother asked me to draw a picture of her for her birthday. She wanted Jesus in the image in some way, but she had no specifications as to how.

As you've no doubt guessed by now, the young girl in the picture is my mother, based on an old photo I found of her at age twelve (circa 1959). Jesus is hugging her, as a father would hug his daughter.

My mother and my grandfather had a very strained relationship; a veteran of World War II's Pacific Theater, he was often drunk, surly, unsupportive of her, and sometimes very verbally abusive, and she was the unfavored middle child as well. She grew up longing for a true father figure in her life. This longing led her into the arms of several different men throughout her life, but they all turned out to be drunkards, abusive in many respects, or both... just like her biological father. When she realized that her choices in men were continuing a terrible cycle, she gave up trying to find a husband and devoted her life to the Lord. In Him, she found the loving, ever-present Father figure she had been seeking. This was the aspect of Adonai -- "Our Father, Who Art in Heaven" -- that I was trying to emphasize in the finished work (which is currently in my sister's care).

My mother passed away on 29 October 2008. Requiescat in pace, Mater.