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Description
I'll be honest. I really wasn't going to submit for this contest. To tell the truth, I usually don't even enter contests. And if I'm really honest, I didn't even know what to make of the various pixelated entries when I first noticed them showing up. I thought it was a bizarre new meme, or possibly that a couple hundred deviants sporadically had the same nostalgia for Mario Paint's old stamp creation feature, and simultaneously forgot to click the little bomb in the corner when they saved it. (Insert SNES robot techno here!)

Cutting to the chase, I caved. Not for any other reason than an excuse to talk about love. And it's not that I am disgusted by the saccharine couplish vibes that erupt during valentine's day. There's nothing wrong with romance, really. It's cute and it is a gift to be enjoyed. But those emotions aren't love.

But consider this: Says the old and popular hymn, "What can wash us white as snow? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

And that is the crux of the matter, to put it relevantly. It pleased God to redeem His children, and he chose to redeem his children. We're talking children who hated God and offended Him in every vile way there is. Things that if our own children did to us to the same severity, we would never again be able to face them. And yet in redeeming them, God loved them.

So I went for a classic spectrum theme. His blood penetrated a dark world filled with hate and all forms of vileness and sin, he took that darkness on himself, and all who were carried in his blood were cleansed, made pure though they were vile, made children though they long and freely disowned their own Creator. Further, Christ took the pain of sin, the punishment of sin, and all of the Father's hatred for that sin on Himself, that sinners might be saved. Is there really a greater love?

I am sure this will not appeal to many people. I am expecting the famous submissions to display rainbows and messages of how romantic love isn't limited by gender, and silly pictures of NES favorites (because hey, when you're only given so many pixels...!)

But even if you will cast this off as another religious beat-you-over-the-head message, remember one thing. Love is more than feeling, and it is worlds away from being about the types of things you lust after.

Love is to sacrifice, it is to forgive, it is to cherish selflessly, and it is to do these things unconditionally. (Found your relationship on that, it will seriously change the way you see things.) Perfect love is not something found on a romantic holiday, and I would argue it is not something found innately in any man or woman on this earth. But man needs nothing greater than such a perfect Love.

And in keeping with the theme, it is in love that I share that with you. It is in love that I share that, and it is a portrait inasmuch as it is a portrait of my own redemption, because when a person is redeemed, God looks and sees not him, but the work of Christ. Could there be a better portrait, then, for one of the redeemed but that faithful and enduring cross?
//

Edit: I'm aware of what it looks like. I didn't see that at the time, but, yeah. Hindsight. I'll be staying away from pixelart, I think. XD

Description
I'll be honest. I really wasn't going to submit for this contest. To tell the truth, I usually don't even enter contests. And if I'm really honest, I didn't even know what to make of the various pixelated entries when I first noticed them showing up. I thought it was a bizarre new meme, or possibly that a couple hundred deviants sporadically had the same nostalgia for Mario Paint's old stamp creation feature, and simultaneously forgot to click the little bomb in the corner when they saved it. (Insert SNES robot techno here!)

Cutting to the chase, I caved. Not for any other reason than an excuse to talk about love. And it's not that I am disgusted by the saccharine couplish vibes that erupt during valentine's day. There's nothing wrong with romance, really. It's cute and it is a gift to be enjoyed. But those emotions aren't love.

But consider this: Says the old and popular hymn, "What can wash us white as snow? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

And that is the crux of the matter, to put it relevantly. It pleased God to redeem His children, and he chose to redeem his children. We're talking children who hated God and offended Him in every vile way there is. Things that if our own children did to us to the same severity, we would never again be able to face them. And yet in redeeming them, God loved them.

So I went for a classic spectrum theme. His blood penetrated a dark world filled with hate and all forms of vileness and sin, he took that darkness on himself, and all who were carried in his blood were cleansed, made pure though they were vile, made children though they long and freely disowned their own Creator. Further, Christ took the pain of sin, the punishment of sin, and all of the Father's hatred for that sin on Himself, that sinners might be saved. Is there really a greater love?

I am sure this will not appeal to many people. I am expecting the famous submissions to display rainbows and messages of how romantic love isn't limited by gender, and silly pictures of NES favorites (because hey, when you're only given so many pixels...!)

But even if you will cast this off as another religious beat-you-over-the-head message, remember one thing. Love is more than feeling, and it is worlds away from being about the types of things you lust after.

Love is to sacrifice, it is to forgive, it is to cherish selflessly, and it is to do these things unconditionally. (Found your relationship on that, it will seriously change the way you see things.) Perfect love is not something found on a romantic holiday, and I would argue it is not something found innately in any man or woman on this earth. But man needs nothing greater than such a perfect Love.

And in keeping with the theme, it is in love that I share that with you. It is in love that I share that, and it is a portrait inasmuch as it is a portrait of my own redemption, because when a person is redeemed, God looks and sees not him, but the work of Christ. Could there be a better portrait, then, for one of the redeemed but that faithful and enduring cross?
//

Edit: I'm aware of what it looks like. I didn't see that at the time, but, yeah. Hindsight. I'll be staying away from pixelart, I think. XD