Mural Mosaic: Lavoie and his partners Phil Alain and Paul Lavoie began the Mural Mosaic journey to bring communities together using their murals as examples of "Unity through Diversity". This is represented by bringing the uniqueness of individual creative styles together on numerous panels to create one united image. The most unique aspect of this artistic process is that artists are given an individual panel with the freedom to paint what they want within the "theme" of the mural subject, however, the final image created by Lavoie is kept secret until mural unveiling.
God created us and has given us the freedom to “paint” … to create … to live within the “theme” … within the boundaries that He has set for us. God created us different and unique … no two alike and yet we need each other. We were created to flourish in community. And one day we will be able to step back and look at the whole picture, the complete picture, and we will be amazed at what we were allowed to create that fits into His overall creation.
Here’s what God says about how we are to be with one another.
John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands. … 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Unity and Diversity in the Body 1 Corinthians 12: 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. … 14 … so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Yes, I see that I need to love others, but what would that look like?” Paul gives a great description in 1 Corinthians 13 Love is …
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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