""Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" ~ 1 Peter 3:21 Baptism is the beginning of our being made ready, an invitation to die and rise as a new Creation. Baptism is a sacrament designed to alter and transform us. It represents a physical washing and cleansing to bring us to new life in the spirit. The figures on the right riverbank are attending angels, with covered hands, which denotes respect for touching what is sacred. These angels have wings as white as their garments, angling in toward the event in harmony. The spiral motifs etched into their halos remind us they are witness to eternity. Water engulfs Jesus as he stands in the River Jordan. He is submerged and transformed in the river from the larval state of the present into a new existence. Iconography makes the water abstract and not like any river we might see. In fact, the water surrounding Jesus is more the shape of a blue cocoon, a place of metamorphosis. The lines in the water suggest energy flowing, moving, or vibrating: “Living Water.” Submerging our body in water is always shocking. When humans are submerged into water, we are more than vulnerable: we are desperate for air as we struggle to avoid death. Being immersed in water that is divinely charged through ritual, radically changes whomever and whatever is immersed. The rituals re-calibrate the soul and take it beyond the physical environment. A person cannot be a little wet any more than one can be a little pregnant. Baptism, although just a ritual, is a literal re-birth, as if re-emerging from the waters of the womb. We begin to live into and through a new spirit."

Narrative Icon Collection

The collection of 12 narrated biblical event and feast days are taken from my book Life in Christ 2021, Knowledge of God made visible in Jesus the Man.

Mary Jane Miller is a self-taught Byzantine style iconographer with over 28 years of experience, born in New York and living in Mexico full time. Her collections of sacred art are contemporary, with a proficient command of egg tempera. The work is extraordinarily rich in style and has been exhibited in museums and churches in both the United States and Mexico. As an author, Miller blends historical content and personal insights to arrive at contemporary conclusions about faith. Her six self-published books include Icon Painting Revealed, Mary in iconography, In Light of Women, and Life in Christ and The Stations. Miller has been published online and in publications such as Divine Temple, Russian Orthodox Journal, Faith and Forum Magazine, Liturgy Today and Profiles of Catholicism. She teaches 4 courses annually, 5-day immersion workshops throughout the US and Mexico. Website: https://www.millericons.com/, https://sanmiguelicons.com/