Have You Forgotten?

What have my eyes seen?  The faithfulness of God?  His care?  Specific answers to prayer?  Surprising evidences of His presence?  Truth in dark places?

"Only give heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen."  PAY ATTENTION.  Write things down.  Keep a journal.  Tell those you do life with.  Put a note on the fridge.  Just DON'T FORGET!  It's no wonder God set up so many feasts and festivals for His people.  They were memory aids!  Because we forget.

And frankly, remembering is good for the soul.

Speaking of Hope...

Another card.  This time a variegated tulip, with truth from God Himself.  The inside of the card says "Why are you in despair, o my soul?  And why have you become disturbed within me? HOPE IN GOD, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence."  (psalm 42:5....and two other times in verses surrounding this one...I've blogged about this before).

Here's the problem.  There are broken people in this world.  Sometimes it's me.  Sometimes is a friend or acquaintance.  We all get to a sad place of momentarily feeling hopeless.  And this is the TRUTH that must always be stated.  But if you KNOW the truth...and yet, you don't FEEL the truth...the last thing you want to hear is some pious person saying, "hope in God."  So I haven't mailed this card to anyone.  It sits in my drawer.  And instead I pray, knowing that only God can restore hope in Himself.

Crocuses

There's a small tub in my garage full of photos.  They're all old.  From back when we had film cameras, and actually had to have our photos PRINTED, for crying out loud!  I had almost forgotten it was out there, and today I went digging.  And lo, and behold....what a treasure trove of reference pics!!  Happy birthday to me, even though it's not my birthday!

This is a greeting card that I'm sending to a friend, also cleaning out her storage.  Why do we end up with boxes, and tubs, and more boxes of STUFF?  And it just sits for years on years!  Here's hoping a note of encouragement will add some joy to my friend's storage-cleaning efforts. 

One-Line Rooster

I seem to have a thing for roosters!

Not long ago I heard that a friend was in a sad place, a place of needing to wait on God, and I decided that I wanted to send her a card.  The grocery store NEVER has JUST the right card!  So I made my own.  This scan still shows some of the pencil sketch lines (which I erased before I mailed it!).  What better thing than to remember, even in the midst of the hard stuff, that God has done WONDROUS things for my soul?!

The rooster is drawn with one long line, with my pen never leaving the paper.

The Lord is My Shepherd

I love the contrast of how we tend to see ourselves, in our sinful state, and how God sees us because of the work of Jesus Christ!  I've been slowly working my way through a book called "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" by Phillip Keller.  It's poignant how LIKE sheep we are!  Like the smaller text in this drawing...stubborn, habit driven, fearful, needy, wayward, rebellious, ungrateful, foolish, panicky....!

Thank You, my God that You see me as BELOVED, PURSUED, REDEEMED!!  And that's the truth.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well, not to me personally, but to my blog!!

Can you believe it?  Two whopping years, and still moving along.  So what was the point?  I went back and looked at my VERY FIRST post.  Way back then I said (among other things) that my hope was that I'd be encouraged to paint (or draw!) daily!  Well, "daily" hasn't happened.  But having this blog going has been a tool to keep me plugging away, and (to quote Winston Churchill) "never, never, never give up".

To all of you who have bothered to look...to read...to comment...THANK YOU!

On another note, I did this watercolor way back in 2006 (I think!).  I still love it.  It's tiny...3" x  5"...and it now belongs to my sister-in-law.  I don't know what I like more: the seed pods in the background, or the blue blades of grass cutting right across the face of the poppy.  Both are evidence that God FREQUENTLY takes ahold of my hand and brush, and the results are beautiful!

(ok....those aren't seed pods....I think they're poppy buds!)