Free Falling

Free Falling

My Beloved Husband and I are recently home from a trip to Colorado, where I am privileged to have paintings included in an abstract exhibition. The trip itself was a welcome change of pace for us, and I feel like I have JUST gotten home! I hardly know where the time has gone since we returned, though I have had some more good things happening since then.

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6" x 4" x 3/4" deep

Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on cradled panel

Click here to view on my website.

While we were in CO, we had the opportunity to drive up Pikes Peak (which I found both terrifying and thrilling) and on the way back down, our brakes were found to be too hot for us to continue so we were instructed to pull over for a time. My Beloved Husband helped find a place for me to set up my plein air painting kit, and I started painting the beautiful mountain landscape! I was just well into the painting, and ‘in the zone’, which means I was hardly noticing anything around me, when he came up to me and said, “I think that sound might be thunder.” Within a very few minutes, a storm came over the ridge behind me. Wow, did we pack up my painting things in a hurry! I haven’t decided whether to finish that mountain painting in my studio, or leave it as is as a fun memory of the adventure!

I love the following verses from the Old Testament book of Job. I find Job difficult to understand sometimes, but I love to read Job's absolute trust in God, even when he doesn't understand what is happening to him. He seems to have an enormous understanding of the natural world, and God's hand in it. And to me, the fact that Job recognizes all of God's power and interaction with Creation, and then complains that he doesn't understand shows a free fall into the grace of God - trusting Him to ultimately do what is right. 

Job 26:7 - 14
He stretches the northern skies over empty space;
he hangs the earth on nothing.
He wraps up the water in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.
He obscures the view of his throne,
spreading his cloud over it.
He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars that hold up the sky tremble,
astounded at his rebuke.
By his power he stirred the sea,
and by his understanding he crushed Rahab.
By his breath the heavens gained their beauty;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
These are but the fringes of his ways;
how faint is the word we hear of him!
Who can understand his mighty thunder?

This painting brings to my mind some of the spectacular scenery we saw in the Rocky Mountains. We drove through heavy rain and saw the most beautiful rainbows, and there was rushing water coming off the cliffs and over the rocks afterwards. The patchwork of sun and shadow and the various colors of rock and foliage are communicated here, too. At times, the clouds would come up very quickly and obscure the whole range of mountains in front of us. The beauty there is breathtaking (sometimes literally, at 14,500'!), and we were so grateful for the opportunity to be there. 

What I would like to wrap up with for today is the way that the concept of a free fall into the grace of God ties in with this painting. The trouble is, I can see it and feel it, but I cannot put it into words at all! I hope you get a small taste of the awe of the gorgeous landscape, and a feel for falling into the loving arms of the Heavenly Father.