Kim Jacoby

     They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Most connoisseurs who closely study Michelangelo's detailed sculptures would stand in awe of his inspired work.  The same goes for Renoir's colorful impressionistic paintings.
     Kim Jacoby happens to have a favorite piece of artwork, but it wasn't crafted by any famous painter.  Far from it.  It will never hang in an art gallery.  It wasn't fashioned using oil paints, acrylics, pastels, or even crayons.  No, this picture was painstakingly brushed on paper using Skittles soaked in water.  The artist?  A female inmate, Paula.  Once an atheist, now a believer.  The subject?  The bowed head of Jesus Christ, her Savior.  A not-so-subtle message to Kim, her mentor and teacher:  "I've surrendered.  I bow before my Lord."  Probably an attitude a long time in coming and not without its costs.
     Paula was a hard case.  She attended the Bible study Kim facilitated within those inescapable walls.  Arms folded and a scowl on her face, she declared, "I'm an atheist - I don't believe in God.  He's let me down too many times."  Apparently this female prisoner attended class just to have something that looked good on her record.  Wisely, Kim recognized the incongruence of Paula's statement.  "Well, if you don't believe in God, why do you credit Him with letting you down?" she inquired.
     Their discussion continued until, finally, it was time for Kim to leave.  Before she parted, she left Paula with this challenge:  "You know there is a God.  That's a start.  You might want to ask Him about His Son."
     Shortly after that talk, Kim brought Paula a book - "The Case for Christ."  Paula hungrily devoured its pages in less than a week.  For Kim's next visit, Paula astonished her new sister in Christ with the portrait.
     Just as Paula "Skittle-painted" that blank piece of paper, the Lord used His tools, Kim and the Truth, to transform an unbelieving heart.  "Behold, I make all things new."