Painting Spring

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Springtime in Spokane amazes me! After a cold and snowy winter, I cannot seem to take in enough of the pink dogwood and cherry blossom sights and fragrances, the perfumed lilacs, multi-colored tulips, bird songs, flowering scents, or the rushing Spokane River. As I walked to my daughter’s house on Wednesday morning, the songbirds sang louder than ever. Purple crocuses and tulips peeked out of their winter tombs, and swollen tree buds prepared to burst!

I painted Reflections of Spokane in winter as I anticipated the coming of spring. It is one of three panels that sweep from spring to summer through autumn and snowy winter. This painting is the first panel and my favorite. Painting is hard work for me as my hands continue to tremor, but the more challenging the battle, the sweeter the victory!

We appreciate spring so much more because we waited many long months for it to come. We as believers also wait for another kind of spring to arrive—the promised return of our Lord Jesus Christ after a long and dark “winter” in this earth place. The Bride of Christ is more than ready to see the face of her long-awaited Sacred Lover, who writes to her:

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me. My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely (Sng 2:10-15 NIV).

The Message Bible says it like this:

Get up, my dear friend, fair and beautiful lover—come to me! Look around you: Winter is over; the winter rains are over, gone! Spring flowers are in blossom all over. The whole world’s a choir—and singing! Spring warblers are filling the forest with sweet strains. Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed, and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms. Oh, get up, dear friend, my fair and beautiful lover—come to me! Come, my shy and modest dove—leave your seclusion, come out in the open. Let me see your face, let me hear your voice. For your voice is soothing and your face is ravishing (Sng 2:10-14 Message).

Today is another beautiful spring day here in Spokane. Yesterday I pulled all the dead plant leaves and grass out of my flower beds to make room for my tulip and perennial sprouts. Backbreaking, to be sure, but a spiritual reminder to get rid of past debris to make room for the beauty of what lies ahead. 

Yesterday morning I thought deeply on Philippians 3:10-14. Paul says he considers everything a loss compared with the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, his Lord. What he used to see as religious gain, he now calls garbage. He only wants to press on to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering. He then says, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14).

I wondered about the “high calling of God.” What is that supposed to look like in my daily life? The preceding verses talk about knowing the Lord Jesus Christ for whose sake Paul lost all things. Paul’s deepest desire was to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. The lights came on as I realized that seeking to know Jesus is the point, the goal, the high calling. To focus on a close relationship with Him brings daily inner renewal.

Can we live with that focus? Can we forget what lies behind us, the past mistakes, failures, sins—throw it all into the compost pile for redemption and seek to walk in constant communion with our Savior? Will we choose to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race He marked out for us? Will we fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith? Surely, knowing He endured the cross for the joy of a relationship with us woos us to know and love Him (see Heb 12:1-2).

As we watch spring come into full bloom, may it draw us into a deeper relationship with the One who calls us to come away from the deadness of the past. May we walk with Him into the new life of victory He offers to each of us every day.

For The Joy Set Before Him

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Long before men and women scurried upon the face of the earth or living creatures produced after their kind, before He hovered over the waters and before they teemed with life before oceans roared, or springs gushed, before He set the boundaries of the seas or laid the foundations of the earth, before He settled the mountains into place, formed the hills, or spread the fields across the globe, before the heavens met the horizon on the face of the deep, or the sun shone, or the moon gave its light, before He separated the light and darkness or made the expanse between the water and the earth, and before clouds swirled, and before He flung stars to the far reaches of space… GOD! Perfect, holy, altogether lovely, magnificent, majestic, profoundly terrible, and awesome. From the very core of their eternal plurality, the indescribable, unfathomable, infinite, eternal GOD existed as one in an inextricable unity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him; male and female, He created them. Hovering over His last creation with special attention, Creator carefully constructs a “her” from a single “he” rib in a primal garden-world unmarred by evil. The “her” is a perfect match for his body, intellect, and emotions.

Creator designed the “her” from eternity past to delight and satisfy her husband like no other creature. He created her to build in him and their children a sense of significance as they grow beneath her love and care. God designs her to provide a place of safety—a home to bring security to their lives, preparing them to function independently in a vast world. She will nurture them into becoming self-respecting, responsible adults.

The “her” grows strong, beautiful, and perfect beneath the Master’s skillful and loving hands. Fearfully and wonderfully, He forms her. This new creation amazes the “he” and the angels watch the process with enraptured attention. The final culminating touch to all God’s creation is nothing less than the mysterious creature Creator called “Woman.”  As a suitable helper, not found in the entire kingdom of beasts and birds, she can powerfully influence the “he” for good, or as it turned out, for evil.

The pivotal point for all humanity comes with a voice, still echoing through millenniums, hissing into those perfectly created ears, “Taste it. A little won’t hurt. It is good for food… food is good. Just imagine the pleasure, the satisfaction you will feel. Oh, and how pleasant it is to the eyes, how beautiful its color! You can use your power to take hold of this ripe beauty hanging in front of you and to convince dear Adam to have some too. You won’t die. God knows if you eat of it, you will be like Him, knowing both good and evil. You do want to be wise, admired, praised, and significant in your intelligence, do you not? Just reach out your hand and touch… there… now gently tug, and it is yours. Oh, the fragrance! Just a bite and you will know good and evil.”

She looks, she contemplates… she sees it is suitable for food, a delight to the eyes, and desirable to make her wise. She reaches, takes its fruit, and eats. She also gives it to her husband, standing there with her, and he also eats. Suddenly the eyes of both of them open, and they realize they are naked! Although they sew fig leaves together to make coverings, it is not covering enough.

When Lord God comes to walk with them side-by-side, hand-in-hand in the cool of the evening, they hide. His words painfully echo to the end of time, “Adam… Adam… Where are you?” Then Adam blames her, and she blames him, and then… Lord God sheds the lifeblood of an innocent creature and tears its pelt to cover their nakedness. He curses the man, the woman, the ground, and the serpent. Before He drives them from the garden, He promises to redeem them… someday. Cherubim and flaming swords flash back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Time passes… she never sees Lord God again, or the garden, or the beautiful creature He meant for her to be.

In perfect jealousy, never does Lord God’s blazing eyes leave those created in His image. Never does He forget His promise. Never does His eternal heart stop yearning to show His grace and gather us back into the garden of His immense love. So… He comes. He comes to redeem all the sin and pain and suffering of all time. He comes as one of us—GOD in the flesh of man. Universe exploder, star thrower, planet spinner, ocean lifter, mountain raiser GOD… set aside all His glory and becomes one of us.

Isaiah prophesies that no one will desire Him for his physical attractiveness. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Hebrews says that during the days of His life on earth, he offers up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who can save him from death, and He is heard because of His reverent submission. It is unimaginable that eternal God the Son suffers in obedience to the God-Head… still inseparable unity, still three persons in one GOD—one heart.

The evil one, whose own heart grew proud on account of his earlier beauty and whose wisdom corrupted because of his splendor, schemes a fiendish plan. His malevolent face grins with malice as his skeletal finger traces a map of destruction. Fed by his manic success in separating man from God, he plots to divide and destroy the God-Head. Persuasion of the Son to act independently of His Father will demolish the eternal unity and power of GOD Himself.

The Spirit leads the Son into the desert. Rising waves of heat distort the desert landscape, creating images of spiritual things that appear and disappear before His eyes. Things are not what they seem, yet hunger is so real. The seeming liquid rocks shimmer beneath the ruthless heat. There is no breeze. There is no sound but nagging thoughts and relentless hunger.

The last forty days stretch into eternity. What illusions rise upon the desert floor? What voice hisses into his thoughts. “It is good for food… food… If you are the Son of God, you can tell this stone to become bread.” His flesh cries out with desire. It would be so easy… just a glance and one minor miracle at that scintillating rock, and his gnawing hunger would be satisfied. Yet, He knows more than the evil one. Bread can never satisfy the spiritual dimension of man’s soul. Earthly pleasures will only disappear into the vacuous hole left by the Fall.

He could become the breadbasket of the world, a savior of mercy without justice. Yet, acting independently of His Father could only bring a deeper hunger still. Why else was manna given to His people day after day except that He might make them understand the importance of a different dimension? He whispers back, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”  

The stones disappear, and the desert passes beneath him in a retreating blur. Suddenly the gleaming city of Jerusalem, bathed in the setting sun, rises to meet him. From the pinnacle of the temple, His gaze caresses the beloved city. Beneath Him, the people wander like sheep without a shepherd. O how His heart burns to gather them like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they do not want Him. What miracle will open their eyes to who He is and to God’s love for them?

Like a wind screaming in His ears, the thoughts taunt Him again, “IF You are the Son of God… if you are, throw yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, and in their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Can He validate God’s love and His own significance by becoming a sensation or performing more signs and wonders?

Even after all the desert miracles, had they not tested Him at Massah, saying, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” What else can He do for them? No, He will not test His Father’s love. He can only trust it. With gathered confidence, He speaks, “It is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 

 In a moment, Jerusalem falls from beneath Him, and from a high mountain, all earth’s kingdoms pass before Him. Oh, so pleasant to the eyes, the present and future glory of man’s accomplishments and possessions, the philosophic intellectual pursuits, the technological advancements, and engineering feats span the horizon of time. Yet, a world of kingdoms and people who worship themselves, lost to the truth of their origin and existence, separated from the God who so lovingly designed and created them in His own image. A cry escapes His lips as the foreboding shadow bates his thoughts again, “I will give you all this domain, and its glory for it has been handed down to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if you worship before me, it shall all be yours.”… 

All he has to do is make a small compromise to regain control of the situation. He can be a political and social savior. He can have the crown without the cross! Ah-h, but can He reject El Elyon—God Most High to possess it? He came to this earth to do the Father’s will, not His own. He must rest securely in His Father’s wisdom, love, and power. With power and authority, He raises His voice above the roar of time, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God and Him only you shall serve.’”

The olive grove rustles softly in the night air. Mist rises from the damp earth where He lies prostrate before His Father. Fingers that once touched blind eyes healed deaf ears, and tenderly held children are now clenched white in anguish.

“You don’t have to do this,” hisses a familiar voice. “Even if you give your life for them, they won’t want you. They’ll run away. They’ll deny they even know you. They want a political savior, a miracle man, someone to heal them and feed them and give them ease and comfort. You will disappoint them, you betray their trust, you lead them all like sheep to the slaughter!”

Dark clouds drift silently over the moon, and the shadows deepen. “Father,” He whispers hoarsely, “Father if you are willing, let this cup pass from me.”

“Ha! Yes, let it pass!” Hisses the voice. “This is too much to ask. You cannot bear the weight of the whole world! One hot breath and all your miserable creatures can be gone, swept into hell with me. You don’t have to do this!”

Drops of blood bead on his brow and trickle down into his beard. He raises his body from the earth and looks up into the night sky. With gathered strength, He cries out, “Father, not my will but yours be done!” The voice slithers away beneath the darkness, and angel wings sweep down and around, comforting, worshipping, loving Him. The last test, the last temptation, and in the final victory, He leads the way to victory after victory over self-centeredness, self-abasement, self-serving, self-aggrandizement, and self-righteousness.

No, he does not lead them like sheep to the slaughter. He leads them to victory and eternal life! He is a Savior from sin for all those who exchange their self-righteous rags for His robe of righteousness. He does not save them by serving His own needs but by doing His Father’s will. He does not save them by becoming a performing spectacle but rather by a humble, righteous, servant life and message. He does not save them through compromise or manipulation, but by bowing in obedient submission and brokenness to the Father’s plan… death on a cross.

Woman weeps beneath a cross. Fallen, fallen is beautiful and lovely Eve. Her design is marred. She has become a dwelling place of unclean things. Her sorrows multiplied in childbirth and all her children drank the wine of the passion of her idolatry. Their sins have piled up as high as heaven. “There is none righteous, no not one.” All her children fell…yet, not all, for there is One…one of her offspring does not fall; A son of Eve, a son of David, the Son of GOD. Oh Garden of Eden, Garden of Gethsemane, He weeps for your children.

The image of invisible GOD, firstborn over all creation, Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities hung suspended above the world. The One by whom all things were created and for whom all things were made, and by whom all things hold together—GOD—broken, bleeding, crushed, covered with our sin. Demons dance, women weep, disciples run.

GOD—perfect, holy, altogether lovely, magnificent, majestic and profoundly terrible and wondrous, once existing in inextricable unity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit suddenly, unimaginably, inconceivably, unbelievably are ripped apart. With inexpressible pain, the Father turns His face away from His Son. The cries of the Son pierce and reverberate through a universal blackness, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”

Out of His immense love for man, for woman, the eternal oneness of GOD rips apart, altering the very core of eternal GOD. Demons dance, screaming their apparent victory! Man’s sin does its work, and the perfectly righteous, perfectly pure, and beautiful Son takes upon Himself all the sin of the entire world. The Godhead—ruptured, hemorrhaging, flowing down, over, covering, cleansing, washing, clean, pure, holy!

Woman lifts His broken body and washes it with her tears. With linen cloths, ointment and spices, she anoints it for burial. Here all her sins are laid to rest, buried within the tomb. Though Eve plunged the earth into darkness and pain and sorrow, through her was promised a Redeemer whose foot would bruise the serpent’s head. Woman bows before The Lord her Righteousness.

Night falls. Never so dark a night… never so hopeless a day… and night… and day… and night until a line faintly appears upon a perceived horizon. It grows… slowly it widens, and gradually it rises in shards of light to pierce the gloom. Brighter and brighter, it grows until the burning core bursts upon the earth in resplendent radiance. A line awakens upon a cosmic screen through the blackest darkness, and the heart once still now lurches to life.

He is the Beginning, the Word of promise, fleshed out and rising as the Light of life. In Him is life, and that life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. In a dimension of unapproachable light, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fuse together once again and for eternity. Angels rejoice, demons flee, Heaven receives! Yet… a mystery… fully God in blazing beauty and brightness, yet the scars… the eternal scars… her name carved in the palms of His hands. He will never leave or forsake her… ever.

In that early morning light, Woman enters the tomb, but she cannot find Him. Wandering through the garden, her tears blind her to the Divine Gardener. But then… He calls her name. Understanding dawns upon her mind and heart, and this time, she does not run or hide. There is no shame, no blame, and no guilt. Incredulously she embraces Him as never before and becomes whole. Once constructed from Adam’s side, now reconstructed from the pierced side of Christ. He rose to redeem the lost and broken and to draw them into His eternal beauty.

Hovering over His recreation with special attention, the Redeemer carefully constructs a new creation from a pierced side, a broken heart, and a risen Savior in a fallen and devastated world. Designed from eternity past to be loving, joyful, peaceable, patient, kind and good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled, the new creature grows through various trials that produce endurance. Endurance has its perfect result to make Woman perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

She grows inwardly strong, beautiful, and mature beneath the Master’s skillful and loving hands. Though outwardly she is still wasting away, she is renewed day by day as He forms her spirit and forms a new heart within her. Fearfully and wonderfully, He is at work within her. Using all the circumstances of her life, He conforms her to His own beauty.  

Indeed this new creation in progress continues to amaze her husband and remains a wonderment to the great cloud of witnesses enraptured with the Master’s handiwork. She learns satisfaction in Her Creator’s presence. From time to time, she catches her reflection in the eyes of her Sacred Lover and sees the significance she holds under his constant, attentive gaze. She casts all her cares upon Him and rests in the security of His wisdom and power.

Who is this whom the King brings into His chambers? Is she not the beloved Bride? How beautiful you are, Woman of God. He calls you His darling, His beautiful one. He calls you to come away with Him because the winter of fruitlessness and loneliness passed, the rain of weeping is over and gone. The flowers of joy and promise are blooming in His presence. The time for pruning the vines is here, the voice of turtledoves is heard in the land, and the vines in blossom give out their fragrance, so is His love for you fresh and new as springtime. He calls your name. He calls you to a new life, clean, forgiven, and free. Listen to His voice calling to you now, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!” (Song of Songs 2:10-13).

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3

A Quiet Place

MY SOUL often longs for a quiet place, that secret place to rest in my all-knowing, sovereign, wise, and loving Creator. Indeed, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust‘ (Psa 91:1,2).

I painted this mountain cabin picture out of my imagination so many years ago while my husband was still in seminary and I taught high school art classes. At the time, the sale of this painting helped our meager income. However, it also provided a small imagined oasis from the pressures of school and work. 

The rustic cabin illustrates an unpretentious, quiet place of refuge. Through the years, I discovered that God’s Son, the Prince of Peace, is that peaceful place. Though royalty, He entered this world through a young peasant woman in a stable, not through the rich and famous. To enter that quiet stable requires humility. King David humbly cries The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart (Psa 51:17). In that quiet place of humility, we learn, The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit (Psa 34:18). His comforting presence turns the bitter to sweet. A messianic psalm says The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary (Isa 50:4).

Near the cabin, a mountain stream brings life and refreshment to the valley below. God speaks through the Prophet Jeremiah and says My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jer 2:13). To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water… whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Jhn 4:10,14). 

Jesus is that living water, and all who receive Him into themselves receive eternal life. The Apostle John writes He (Jesus) came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (Jhn 1:11-13).

In this painting, mist shrouds the valleys and disguises the landscape. Our future also remains hidden. Yet God assures us of His constant and abiding presence. The psalmist refers to God as his shepherd and says, Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Psa 23:4). The Prophet Isaiah calls out, Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God (Isa 50:10). However, the next verse says what happens to those who refuse to trust God in the darkness, who choose to go their own way: But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from My hand: You will lie down in torment (Isa 50:11). 

What a contrast to those who choose to trust God’s hand when they cannot see His face! Blessed are those who delight in God’s Word, for they shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in season, their leaf also will not wither, and whatever they do flourishes (Psa 1:2,3). Isaiah cries out over time and circumstance, In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength (Isa 30:15).

We all long for a peaceful place, yet God provided Himself as a place that is not imaginary at all. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (Jhn 3:16-17). Jesus goes on to say, Remain in Me and I in you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit by itself, unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me… This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love (Jn 15:4,8,9).

I pray this painting serves to remind you of the quiet and peaceful place God provides for those who choose to trust in Him. May His living water spring up to refresh your soul even though you cannot see the future. You may not know what the future holds but you can know who holds the future.