My New Name (Rev. 2:17).  Oil on canvas on aluminum composite panel, 24 by 24 inches unframed.  Completed February 2022.

In Revelation 2, the angel is addressing the seven churches.  In verse 17, it is the church at Pergamum.  The angel says:  "To the one who conquers, I will give...a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it."

Kids who come from trauma have monsters in their lives.  You can't draw their monsters too big, as my brother says.  And kids from trauma frequently have secret names.  They won't tell you; it just slips out now and then.  I suspect that they reason even their secret name will be taken from them if they don't protect it.  So the angel is handing the child a white stone and saying: "This is not your bio name.  It is not your foster family's name.  It is not your adoptive name.  This is your name--the one Our Father gave you before He laid the foundations of the earth.  Once you understand the meaning of these words, no monster will be too big for you."  May it be so.