About the mural…
“El Secreto de Ver”
“The Secret of Seeing”
El Secreto de Ver is a mural painted by the October 1999, Caribbean
Mercy Discipleship Training School while on outreach in La Union, El Salvador.
In simplest terms, this was our way of giving a gift to the community while
trying to tell them about the most beautiful kind of restored sight…our
spiritual sight. While the Caribbean Mercy does surgeries to restore physical
sight, our God does miracles to restore the way we see…the way we see
Him, the way we see ourselves, the way we see others, the way we view His
creation. Through this "“creative process” we hoped to speak of our Creator to
these beautiful people. Annie Dillard said, “I cannot cause light, the most I
can do is to try and put myself in the path of its beam.” If we could, in fact, restore our own sight, there would be no need of doctors or of healings.
We all know there is no way we can “will ourselves” into seeing correctly
when we are limited by our humanness. Our only hope of seeing correctly is to put
ourselves in the path of the light. We have to ask for help, to plead
for our restoration, and Jesus is the only answer to our pleas. This was the
most important purpose of our project…we wanted to point people toward the
light.
The first panel represents total spiritual and physical blindness. This
is represented by two figures, both blind, as well as by the fact that it
is nighttime…this also representing a kind of blindness. Also seen on this
panel is an eye with a cataract and blurred vision chart in the reflection of
the eye. The second panel begins the process toward the restoration of sight
by showing the first step you have to take to begin to see…this being
repentance, or asking for help. This is shown by abstract figures in the act of
repentance, a father child image, and crosses…as well as a scientific
diagram of how the eye should work. The third panel is speaking about
“corrective eye wear”. After you ask for help, then your vision must be corrected
through glasses, contacts, surgeries in the physical sense or…through God’s
touch on your spiritual eyes. The fourth and fifth panels talk about first, the
joy that comes with restored vision, and then the freedom that comes with
restored vision. On the fourth panel, you will see a man with cataract glasses
and when looking in the mirror, he sees the glasses are gone. His tears turn into
a figure that is a first walking, then running then leaping for joy. On the
fifth panel, you will see an abstract figure in chains, and how the God’s hand
rips these very chains away…the figures then turn to poses of jubilation
at this freedom. The final panel of images talk about how when your vision
is restored you begin to see again as you did before you became so blind…with
clear eyes, the eyes of a child. When a cataract forms, it starts as a tiny
spec…then grows to a cloud that covers your whole eye. We are born with
that spec…our sinful nature. Over time, we develop our own cataract…we see
less and less, until the day when we realize where we are and ask for that film
to be gone from our eyes forever. This healing is found only in Jesus. He
brings us clear, and childlike eyes to see Him and His creation. The very last
panel is an explanation of the mural, as well as the necessary thank you to the
mayor and the town. It also contains our signatures and our “little eye
guy”…Throughout the mural we also tried to incorporate the community…we
had kids paint the bottom part, and the ex-gang members from a nearby church
helped out significantly…we also used the landscape in the background and the
map on the last panel to give tribute to El Salvador as a country and La
Union as a community…we also tried to represent race and culture in positive
ways.
This project turned out to be more than any of us hoped for. It allowed
us to form meaningful relationships with the people of La Union as well as
tell them about Jesus. Through this project many people were saved…25 at the wall
itself during the painting process, and many more the night of the wall dedication.
It also allowed for a unified effort within our team…this made for many
beautiful minutes to share with each other and made our relationships deeper…I
believe that by the speaking of truth to others through words, or pictures, or
music…you only solidify that truth for yourself…and I know for me this
was a powerful reminder of the grace God gives me to see a little more beauty
each day that I know Him…in the words of my friends in El Salvador…”Gloria a
Dios!!”
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