Hebrews 11:1 - Faith

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
  - Hebrews 11:1

About 15 years ago I bought a t-shirt with this verse printed one it. The verse really said something to me, although at the time I didn't really know what - I just thought it was a really good verse. At the end of the year my church printed a verse for the following year - and it was the same verse. It cropped up again a few times following that until it was firmly stuck in my brain and has become one of my foundation verses - something I go to if I need to read the Bible but have no idea where to start.

The translation above is what is printed on my t-shirt, which I had thought was the NIV translation, but it isn't what's in my Bible. That says:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

I found the verse particularly reassuring after speaking with a Muslim in London during a mission outreach. He talked at me rather than to me and kept asking questions which seemed designed to flummox me. He asked me about the trinity and asked me how I could explain it. I was so overwhelmed by the barrage of questions and trying to get my thoughts together that I couldn't answer, and afterwards felt like a failure and even started having doubts.

Then I remembered the verse. I didn't have to have all the answers, I just needed to have "assurance" or "be certain of" the things I couldn't understand. It's like when you're a child, you don't know all about the water cycle, but you know that you'll have water to drink, sometimes it will rain, and water flows in streams and rivers.

The verse has remained a firm favourite and a reassurance whenever I've felt frustrated or worried or doubting about anything.

While the passage was used as part of week 18 of the Bible Art Journalling Challenge by Rebekah R Jones, the art was inspired by week 19, which used washi tape as a background for the text. This is a different passage, but as it's one of my favourite passages I wanted to do something to highlight it and make the verse stand out and speak for itself.

I added the tape in strips across the margin, letting the ends hang over the edge, then trimmed them once I'd got everything down. I wanted to just have the verse and not much else, so googled lettering to get some inspiration. Lettering is not something I'm particularly good at, and I have to have something to follow as a general rule for it to turn out especially well. I discovered that the gold tape resisted the Micron pen, so I had to go over anything that was on that tape. It didn't affect the end result though, and once it dried it was still permanent and hasn't shown any sign of smudging.

After doing the lettering I added a short thought at the bottom of the page: "You don't have to have proof if you know. My belief in Jesus isn't my religion, it's my faith."