When was the last time you experienced a breath-taking moment?
Did you stare at a mountain and feel the vastness of nature? Or maybe your wife gave birth and you held a new born in your arms. Or perhaps you watched your team come back and win the game?
I recall going to the MCG(Melbourne Cricket Ground) earlier this year with a short window of time prior to another lockdown only to see my AFL team lose badly. It was not breath taking.
However, for me to produce this artwork of the MCG, inspired by God, to see prints of it sell to hundreds of people locally and all over the world, over the many years is nothing short of breath taking.
It was breath taking from the beginning when God spoke to me why to paint it with certain features, and to then have the joy of seeing it at completion.
Let me explain some of these features. Firstly, my MCG painting symbolises the G as a massive altar or ark for God, a place of his presence where He is worshiped, as He gathers and reaches humanity.
Think about it. Mysteriously, week after week God is at work in hearts, throughout our cities as the universal church gathers, and the good news of His coming kingdom is preached. Surely, that is breath taking.
Also, the paintings colours and particularly the rainbow represent the beauty of God in His holiness. Christ rose from the dead because his body could not see decay, a confirmation of his holiness and God head, his beauty!
His righteousness saves us. That is breath taking.
Thirdly, the red marks the green field. Green speaks of restoration of our soul; he makes us lie down in green pastures and restores our soul (Psalm chapter 23). By keeping to God’s ways, we see great blessings in family, work and every area. All this is through the blood of Christ that marks us; the red speaks of His blood given for us.
So, we are reconciled to him and each other as His friends. Wow, that is break taking!
Life can be break taking continually with His miracles. Don’t be dulled down by circumstances let us press into God to have His spiritual discernment in these days.
God wants you to encounter breath-taking moments in life each day through your relationship with God. Let us collect the manna God sends from heaven daily.
Mark Rusic was born in Melbourne and has a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. He became a missionary to many, suffering hardship and poverty on Madura Island in Indonesia, in 1990 for about four years. He worked as a pastor-life coach with Hope International Ministries from 2002 to May 2023, playing a key role in raising up leaders and elders for the local Melbourne Hope church, which lead today. Mark has also been active in conducting yearly trips to remote Indigenous communities, bringing teams for training and outreach, which he initiated from 2015. He also established a salt and light ministry to empower saints of influence in the marketplace from 2017.
Mark is also an artist and an author and has written two books which are both a collection of his own paintings, photography, and poetry. These include ‘Iconic Melbourne of Australia’ and ‘Iconic Animals of Australia- With a voice to release your giant potential within,’ which are available now on booktopia.com.au and at leading book retailers. He has been counted among some of Australia’s best authors on several occasions through Dymocks since 2014 and continues to be a motivational speaker in various community groups, organisations, and churches.
He is currently pioneering his itinerant ministry to bless Indigenous people and empower the body of Christ, while working as an artist, author and speaker.