Matthew 5:8 NIV: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Whenever I actually get out paint, whether acrylic or oils, one of the more frustrating elements is keeping white, pure white. Just the slightest leftover color from a not-quite-clean-enough brush quickly muddies the pristine white. This experience is precisely at the root of the concept of pure in heart.

Pure, in Greek, is the word katharos which means clean, clear, or pure BECAUSE of an unmixed state. In Christianity it also means clean or pure due to being free from sin, guilt, corruption, etc. Jesus adds the modifier “in heart”, letting us know this isn’t about physical purity. This was a radical idea, as most of the world religions at this time, such as Judaism, Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian Religions, considered purity rituals as a means to clean the body. The heart is symbolic as the center of our being. The Greek word kardia is defined as inner thoughts and feelings and our desire producer. To be pure in heart is to have our inner thoughts, feelings, will, and motives free from guilt, deceit, and sin.

The promise for this feat? To see God. Many Greek words are translated as “see”. This one is horao’, which means to see with the mind, perceive or discern. This type of seeing isn’t a physical undertaking. God is actually all around us and present in our circumstances at this very moment. Most of us, though, don’t perceive him.

In this piece, I wanted to depict the inability to see God as a consequence of our inner thoughts and feelings. Our anger, fear, pride, deceit, and distractions taint the purity that God’s spirit is working out in us. As we allow him to make our hearts pure, this promise will come to fruition, and we will be aware of and see God already at work in our lives.