Before us lies the icon of Christ's descent into Hell.  See yourself in this picture as Christ sees you as his likeness - as God originally intended you - lifted out of the darkness of the distortions of your life in order to lead you into the clarity of God's light.

Icon - Christ's descent into Hell  ( picture meditation) in connection with Colossians 1:19-22

• "In order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him"....

• Allow that to happen to you...

- Matthew 3:13-17 ("This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased")

Acknowledge your longing to hear this word, so that God can have joy in you...

- II Cor. 5:17 (New Creation)

Slowly and deliberately put on your finest clothing carefully noticing how you feel about yourself before and after changing clothes...

Experience what clothing can do for you...

Let this meditation flow into listening to the commission presented to us in the letter to the Ephesians: "Put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God" (4:24) - "To live for the praise of his glory": (1:12)...

Created anew - through you - for you...