A selfie of the Christ

Melissa Ann Howell Schier
3 min readFeb 16, 2023

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Who today can say that they have a selfie with Jesus?
Back when Jesus walked the earth, there were no camera’s or photographic images. There was no way to “capture” the image of Jesus.
But Jesus was indeed “captured”, we read in the bible. Interesting how the word capture is used for photography now, giving it a somewhat negative connotation. (lol play on words intentional)
I was thinking about this and thinking about how people take selfies and how that photograph is still used to “capture” something about that moment, that day. Is that “capture” supposed to give a person some kind of advantage? Is that why photo’s always have a “negative”?
When I see various people, for example, in photos with Epstein, the media would have us believe the negative; that they have “captured” accomplices of someone bad and point to the picture as “evidence”. It is negative even before the negative, and doesn’t a double negative cancels itself out?
In contrast, the “truth of being” is spiritual and is not something two dimensional like a photograph. In other words, the truth of someone is actually a myriad of “qualities” that make up what we know is true about a person, and their behavior, if we had to describe them without referring to their appearance… it is multidimensional “understanding”.

And with regards to being “captured” by a selfie, Jesus, we know, was routinely surrounded by lepers, prostitutes etc. Would THEIR character flaws, even if they had been cheek to cheek in a selfie with Jesus, have had any relevance with regards to who Jesus was, his “being” or his “message” which was “the Christ”. Even if all of those sinning, sick and dead people had surrounded Jesus, like the soldiers who ultimately surrounded him, could they ever really “capture” Jesus or prove anything bad about him? Could Jesus be “captured” two dimensionally, any more than when he was physically “captured”? I think not.
Those who actually knew Jesus, understood him. It was their understanding in fact that allowed the reverse to be true. Jesus captured THEIR hearts, and this spiritual awakening, freed them, giving them much more “power” than the power Jesus’s captors thought they had while holding physically him hostage.
The soldiers, being rooted in the physical body of Jesus, did not understand that they had never captured anything about the Christ, as long as they believed they had the “power” to do so.The “Christ” cannot be captured or stolen, it is a gift to be received.
The Christ message, of humility, and forgiveness, also removes physical limitations, and Jesus proved this with his life and then with his power over death.
So if today, we want to show that message of “the Christ” as alive and well with photographs, we can do so with
pictures of us living in and believing in happy families, living in christian communities, using honesty and integrity in business, and caring for children. The Christ is a behavior, not an “image”.
The bible tells us that “the Christ” is already in each of us, and that we reflect it. We just have to recognize it in ourselves in order to appreciate it.
I bet you did not know you already have received “the Christ” and you just needed to realize that it is love expressed.
Ephesians 3 17 ‘so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love “
Love establishes, and one good behavior is worth a thousand pictures.

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Melissa Ann Howell Schier
Melissa Ann Howell Schier

Written by Melissa Ann Howell Schier

HoustonWorkout on YouTube, mom of five, journalist and artist and conservative who values life.

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