The Living Statue
Illustration by Pastor Tony Evans
The following illustration was created by Pastor Tony Evans. I hope it helps readers resist the world’s pressure to conform and to surrender everything to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, standing firm no matter how much the culture squeezes.
I was in New York a number of years ago, and I was walking on 34th Street. I passed Macy’s, and there was a crowd outside the window at Macy’s—a pretty big crowd. So, inquiring minds want to know; I was curious: why are all these people outside of Macy’s?
When I walked around and looked, everybody was looking at this statue in the window. It was a living statue, and the only reason you knew it was because the eyes were blinking. But apart from that, this lady didn’t budge; she was just stoic and didn’t move except for the blinking eyes.
It was impressive, but the reason for the crowd was that a lot of the kids who were in the front were trying to get her to move, to get her out of character. They were making faces, crying, trying everything to disturb or distract this living statue. But she, aside from the blinking eyes, didn’t budge.
It was amazing to see how, for an extended period of time, she did not move in spite of the distractions on the other side of the glass. But I know why she didn’t budge. Because the people on the other side of the glass weren’t paying her; Macy’s was paying her.
Well, you have a world that’s trying to distract you from the Father, who you need in your life to take care of you, so you better stick with the Father and not with the crowd. He says be not conformed to this world; don’t let this world system determine your value system but let that value system be determined differently and distinctly.