“I am the painter of stories and dreams. I am the Artist of all that is.”
So begins Faces: A Love Story by author and illustrator Roger Hutchison, a beautifully simple and beautifully illustrated book about us, all of us, and about God. It’s a picture book for adults, although it could easily be read by and to children as well.
It’s a simple book for a divided time, when we work so hard to pull away from each other, when suspicions fuel our perceptions of each other, when we objectify people because of whom they vote for. Christians who should know better fall into this same divisiveness with each other, forgetting that the Artist was very clear from the outset as to how we would be known – by our love.
Faces: A Love Story explores this theme of love in a time of divisiveness, but a very specific kind of love – that of God for people. The narrative is written like a letter from God, reminding people who he is, who they are, and that we’re created by his hands. And he doesn’t make mistakes. But we do.
“We are separated by all of our assumptions,
preconceptions
misunderstandings,
even a pandemic of fear.
So much mistrust.”
Roger Hutchison
And yet we are made for community, to be with each other, to touch, to feel, and to come alongside.
Hutchison is an artist and author, and also director of Christian Formation and Parish Life at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Painting Table: A Journal of Loss and Joy (2013), Under the Fig Tree: Visual Prayers and Poems for Lent (2015), and Jesus: God Among Us (2018). He and his family live in suburban Houston.
Perhaps what we need is a little more of Faces: A Love Story and a little less of social media, cancel culture, anger, and outrage.
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