Christ Coming Out of Eggshell presents a new and innovative approach to communicating the Gospel, one that challenges the audience to think outside the paradigm of earthly existence. The artwork embeds overt and covert messages into its imagery, speaking to the heart of the viewer and inviting one into covenant relationship with Christ. My own personal interpretation of the work is herein explained.
The centerpiece is the egg. It sits inside a purple chalice, sunlight cascading through its crack. Two disciples pull Christ from the egg, while a third wrests the top half of the shell loose. A woman stands juxtaposed the chalice at right and a cord extends from the bottom of the egg, running through the foundation of the cup, to the earth. The captions read, “metamorphosis”; “Call it a rebirth”; and “Do you believe in transformation?”
The chalice represents the individual believer. We are described as “vessels” through which the Lord operates, instruments of His hands and containers for His Holy Spirit: “that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor” (1 Thes 4:4); “… he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Tim 2:21). The body is the temple of God, the Holy Grail that holds the essence of Christ. Like the potter who shapes the clay, God morphs our inner characters upon the wheel of time to resemble that of the Savior. The color purple signifies the spiritual royalty we inherit in Him.
The woman juxtaposed right of the chalice personifies the feminine archetype. She is associated with the chalice in that believers take on the feminine, submissive role in our position in Christ. We allow the active power of God’s Spirit to move in us and through us. The people praying on magic carpets picture the masculine principle, the active power of God’s Spirit. They are poured into the cup from a watering basin in the sky, representing the “Living Waters” of the Holy Spirit (Jn 4:10).
I sought to portray the perfect balance between masculine and feminine energies, the active and passive principles in harmony to produce the new birth. Believers are like vessels, receptacles for God’s Holy Spirit. In this respect, believers portray the passive principle. Our attitudes must be humble, our hearts open to receiving Him. Just as the feminine produces children, so too the heart is like an egg that houses the spiritual embryo. The Living Waters—the active or masculine principle—pour into the chalice, germinating the heart with Love and quickening to life that new spiritual identity in the believer. The resurrected Christ emerges from the inseminated egg, which represents the heart, and remains inside the chalice, which represents the body. An umbilical cord stretches from the bottom of the egg to “Mother Earth,” while creative energy discharges from the Father out of the sky.
The artwork expresses all three members of the trinity. The Father appears at far left in the clouds. He presents a key to humanity on earth. A hammer connects the key with the cracking open of the egg, which Christ emerges from. This may be interpreted that the Father provides the key in sending His Son Jesus but we must crack open that egg, opening our hearts to Him. An alternative interpretation holds that the key to “Releasing Resurrection POWER in your Life,” as the adjacent caption reads, is in extricating Christ from that egg in the heart. In either case, a woman juxtaposed with the key and the chalice points to the egg, leaving no doubt that the key and egg are somehow linked.
The second Person of the trinity, Christ, appears at far right behind a mountain. While the Christ emerging from the egg portrays the unique and personal relationship He shares in the hearts of individual believers, the Christ behind the mountain pictures the Heavenly Lord who abides in eternity, transcendent beyond His creation.
The third Person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, appears as people riding carpets and praying, poured forth as “Living Waters” form the sky. A dove released from Christ’s right hand also flies juxtaposed the people riding magic carpets, further reinforcing the idea that these individuals symbolize the Spirit. One grouping of these carpet riders pours from a water basin and germinates the egg, while the other group descends directly from the heavenly Christ, flowing into the mind of a believer on earth. This pictures the scripture, “do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). The adjacent caption reads, “Do you believe in transformation?” For those who receive the Spirit, the answer reads, “you will.”
It is essential that we surrender to Christ with open mind and heart. Only then will His Spirit begin to transform and reshape us. Just as the Living Waters are poured into an open heart, pictured by the cracked egg, so too are Living Waters poured into the believer’s open mind. This is portrayed in the believer at the bottom right. The top half of his skull missing, incised from the forehead up. Christ pours the Holy Spirit into the believer’s mind because it is open, ready to receive. Similarly, we must surrender our preconceived notions of who we are and what we know. We must trust Him and continue to be filled, ever growing in an increased capacity to receive more of Him.
The believer whose mind is renewed by the Holy Spirit, at bottom right, is depicted ejaculating a sword from his mouth. The adjacent captions read, “euphoria” and “God wants you.” The sword is another symbol for the Holy Spirit and Word of God: “And take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17)
This sword coming out of the man’s mouth illustrates a believer filled with the Holy Spirit. He wields that sword of God’s Spirit in the words that he speaks to others. The sword is “two edged” because the Truth both kills the Adamic nature and regenerates the new spiritual embryo in the heart. The believer blows dead flakes off a dandelion flower, symbolizing the Spirit’s role in death, rebirth, and regeneration.
The top captions should be read in two parts: “Imagine it if you can… Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.” This is an allusion to the utopian future that one day will be enjoyed under Christ’s 1,000 year Messianic reign. Any attempt at universal peace apart from God—which is the goal of Satan—is doomed for failure. A counterfeit peace will one day be brokered and many shall be deceived. But the wise shall understand and endure until the end, awaiting the Master’s return.
The Kingdom of God is both an internal and external phenomenon. There will not be lasting peace, a utopian dream, or bodily immortality until Christ comes. But this is the outward manifestation of the Kingdom. The inward manifestation of the Kingdom has already been accomplished. For believers, eternal spiritual life is borne in the heart and there is a peace that surpasses all understanding, a quiet “euphoria” in our minds and hearts (Phil 4:7).
This provides segue to our final caption in the bottom left, which reads, “Designed for the extraordinary, explore the whole story.” What is the “whole story” which so many people miss? It is that the resurrection is not only a historical event dating back some 2,000 years ago. It also applies to the here-and-now. The resurrection is the beginning of faith and applies to that new creation, that spiritual embryo quickened to life in the heart of man. It is not only relevant to history and prophecy but also has a mystical side. The resurrection must be experienced to be understood. Ask yourself, has Christ emerged from the Easter Egg of your heart? Does He live His life through you? Does the resurrection mean anything to you beyond the abstract, historical, and/or prophetic? This is the “whole story,” that the Kingdom of Heaven has both an external and internal application. While we may remain in wait for the Kingdom’s outward manifestation, internally, the Kingdom has already come.
Larry Word
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