Dear Ones,

With joy and perseverance, I continue to paint. However, I’m still learning by trial, error, and determination. Watercolor painting requires getting it right the first time. Acrylics allow trial and error but dry too quickly to blend well. Oil painting provides the opportunity to fix, change, and rearrange, but not until each layer dries, which takes days or even weeks! Since I never get it right the first time, love blending colors, and make layers of changes, I decided to use oils. I’m also long on resourcefulness, and short on patience, so I start new oil paintings while waiting for others to dry. Many incomplete pictures, still in process, surround me in my small studio. 

I’m also incomplete and still in process. God, the Master Artist, also patiently waits for His work to mature in us while He begins working in another area of our lives. This life-long process conforms us to the image of Jesus (see Rom 8:28-29). God never makes mistakes, but we often mess up when we resist His Holy Spirit, quench Him by our fears, grieve Him by our anger, or impatiently run ahead of Him. I ran ahead of Him when I painted this sea and skyscape before perfecting the composition; what a backache to fix faults in the foundational structure after too-eagerly covering the canvas in wet paint!

Though I note inherent faults in my work, I can be confident of this, that He who began a good work in me, promises to carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (see Phl 1:6). I’m so grateful that Jesus perseveres to keep us from stumbling and to present us before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy (Jde 1:24). “For by one sacrifice, He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:14). Though He continues His work in us, He already proclaims us righteous by the blood of Jesus.

Sometimes it seemed I’d never get the composition right nor bring this painting to completion. I also found moving water a formidable challenge to paint realistically! I must see the invisible picture in my head before I can bring it to reality on canvas. Many nights I laid awake too long trying to visualize and feel the waves. Moses persevered because he saw Him who is invisible (Heb 11:27). His awareness of God’s presence and purpose motivated him to trust and follow Someone invisible to his natural eyes.

God says in Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” The psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1), and to those who receive, by faith the free gift of salvation, Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jhn 10:27). He also says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (Jhn 14:26).

While I internally visualized and externally painted the rising waves and fiery skies, I thought of Him who created the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them. I remembered His faithfulness to me (see Psa 146:6). Though seemingly silent and invisible, God makes Himself known to those who seek Him. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Mat 7:7).

Oh Lord, You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. You stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. The whole earth is filled with awe at Your wonders; where morning dawns where evening fades, You call forth songs of joy (see Psa 65:5,7).

The Scriptures refer to the unrest of nations as the “roaring of the seas.” We live in troubling times. While speaking of last days, Jesus says our redemption draws near (Luk 21:28). Until then, may each of us see Him who is invisible, hear Him who is inaudible, believe Him who is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, and respond to Him with songs of joy until His promised return.