From the Heart, 2019; throw back Monday?

From the Heart, 2019

Today I enjoyed a look back at this painting from 2019 as I posted about it on social media and reread the original blog post. I loved remembering a symposium shared with my kids, and the gift my loved ones are to me. Today at the post office, I bought a couple of sheets of new stamps, and I chose the Celebrate stamps. Have you seen them? They are so cheerful. I suppose they might have come out at Christmas, but I found them to be  encouraging today, too. 

James 1:17 (HCSB) Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; with Him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning.

It was helpful to be able to focus on these good things today. The last several days have been full of difficult losses - nothing like what many have suffered, but losses nevertheless. 

22" x 30"

Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper

Ready to frame

Click here to view or purchase from my website. 

Over the weekend, I learned of the 2021 death of a person who had a very positive impact on me, and yesterday during church, I was mourning her death, and my loss. It was far more difficult than I had anticipated, particularly since we were not close in any way. 

Another thing that I found painful was the scalping of our woods. Well, that is exaggerating on my part, but it expresses how I feel about it. There is a tile through our woods that is maintained by someone other than us, and it was time for them to cut a large swath through the woods to keep roots from plugging the tile. Many of my favorite places are now just sawdust and shards of wood, and there is a big gash through the trees. I know it is necessary, but I hate it. 

My almost-daily Bible reading lately has been in the Old Testament book of Job. As you probably know, Job lost everything he owned, including his children, and yet he did not sin in his response to his circumstances. In fact, God refers to Job as a righteous person several other places in the Bible. But, Job had friends who came to "comfort" him in his suffering, and they were not good comforters! Job actually tells them, “O that you would be completely silent, And that it would become your wisdom!" Job 13:5

Though my troubles are tiny in comparison to Job's, I actually deeply appreciate the silent encouragement of the colored stamps, and the memories of this cheerful painting! I hope that you can feel these things too, when you look at it.