Christ on Golgotha.
Christian Reflections
The are reflections from a Christian’s walk with the Lord.
I had no idea whatsoever that my Scottish Terrier who died a year ago was going to leap out from a blob of different colored acrylics thrown onto snow onto canvas and melted. But he did! See previous post for final picture or go here to see it on my Fine Art America page where I am known as the artist, Winter Frieze: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/baxter-loves-snow-winter-frieze.html
This is a 4×4 inch by 1.5 inch, canvas block which was the result of three different media- 1) acrylic paint thrown onto snow and melted 2) reconfiguration with brush strokes 3) Paint and Kodak program for final editing . Baxter, my Scottish Terrier, died last year and loved to play in snow. Amazingly, in an abstract intended to be nothing other than an abstract art piece, i.e. literally, acrylics flung, haphazardly and randomly onto snow on canvas and melted, it resulted in the Scottish Terrier image you see here. Will post the montage shortly….
God paints a pallet with our lives in ways we cannot fathom; by means we cannot measure; and in measures we cannot appreciate – I am so thankful to be a small part of it. OK, back to planning for the next painting…
The miniature pictured is one of my latest creations (imported into a stock frame for imaging for now). It is made with an Arrow Saber, that is – an arrow made into a saber, like used in fencing. The project took many different turns and actually started in a blue which, in and of itself, is my favorite part:
Then, it took a few turns, like these:
Even the drop cloths, later on, provided some fun for fractals:
This is the first of many, God-willing and the creek don’t rise.
Straight lines, no lines, an amorphous glob of, well, it’s just going to be fun. I can only imagine what’s in store and think, with utter humility, what God feels like, every moment, as His continuing creation unfolds in all its mysteries, splendors, and newness.
God’s the creator. Do something to honor him today by taking the creative instinct in you and, at the very least, doodle something; draw something; brush a splotch or splash or dash of something; take a picture; or, just watch the stars shine through blurred lenses after spinning in a circle. God will love this and rejoice in your joy!
My wife and I saw the movie Frozen 4 times over the Christmas break. Initially we saw it before we saw our Son and liked it so much we decided to take him to it. Now mind you, we’re grandparents and he’s a grown man – and we enjoyed it so much, again, we saw it 2 more times on the way home from visiting him!
It’s full of fun, joy, hope, suspense, etc. etc. Basically, the best movie, ever!
We’ll buy it when it comes out and will have it on in the background, most likely, most of the time.
We find ourselves singing the songs and humming the music and just smiling.
I can sum up its attraction in one phrase from the movie – DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMAN?
God’s a creator and he wonderfully created us and put this creative instinct in us and this explains the movie.
Thanks Disney!
Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year and if you have not seen Frozen, do not delay.
Side by side are seen the deadly Kukri knife and a jawbone of a donkey. The Kukri is considered an awesome weapon. Wielded in the hand of a skilled practitioner, there is no question as to how many foes one could dispatch. Why people question whether Samson could have really slain a thousand with the jawbone of a donkey is not, therefore, so much a matter of ergonomics, but faith.
I’ve only been wielding my arrow saber, seen in the following video update, for a couple months. I’m an old man. Inspired by God, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Samson did exactly what the Bible recorded. The important lesson in the matter is this: archaeologically or otherwise, everything in the Bible is plausible. One need only question one thing – why does God want us to make leaps of faith? Time to ponder…; but, for now, more arrow sabering…
Just completed a proposal I’ve been working on for the last few months and have been isolated for much of this time; thus, the lack of posting I have done lately. After finishing my proposal I sat down and celebrated with a glass of Blackberry wine and a biscuit with blackberry jelly. I clicked on my favorite BarlowGirl song, Never Alone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8QubLxJI54&list=PLCHvUusNn3Ux6wbgWi_dBK_-lPEL36vdL
I had to remind myself that, even though I felt self-absorbed and isolated during the time of my proposal research and writing, I was never, truly, ALONE.
Jesus Christ, Almighty Father, Holy Spirit, and all the angels and saints and my brothers and sisters in Christ were always there.
The time for branching out and expanding this blog to the open plain is now.
Here is one of my initial ventures into this increased time of sharing, my Arrow Saber, available on YouTube:
Soon, my entire philosophies for life and the preservation thereof will commence, with alarming speed, versatility, and exuberance; but most of all, faith – faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the fact that without Him, I am nothing!
As a Christian I am determined by none other than God to be perfected. But to what ultimate purpose am I being perfected?
I snapped the picture above the other day and thought, “This is not what I would consider a perfect picture.” Yet, there also came an accompanying thought – “What if, at the moment I took that picture, someone had been there that was blind for their entire life. Maybe that person was decades old and had been blind from birth.” You know what? To them, that might be the most amazing picture of the sun they had ever seen in their life, even if they had imagined other ones.
You may never know just when you might shed a different light onto something that, for a lifetime, might have challenged someone else; yet, your insight might just be the one that caused an epiphany for them.
I cannot argue that God did not have all this in mind the moment he created us. I believe he truly does have the whole world in his hands and is active and alive in doing so – not as some might think, absent and afar.
Why am I being perfected? As any great Creator (and being THE GREAT I AM THAT HE IS), God has created us as sacred, protected notes on a great symphony of life, eternal, which none of us could ever have dreamt up otherwise. The up and down beats and rhyme and reason, we cannot understand. We simply must trust in his enterprise – even if, in blindness, we flounder for understanding. He has given us His Word, the Holy Bible; through which we can seek better understanding of just how it is he can be in every moment of our lives – by simply opening the pages and realizing them to be a living testament, the lamp unto our feet, the light in our lives.
To consider myself fortunate enough to be a part of his plans; and, that by his only begotten Son, I am saved from sin and death, is to believe in the impossible and improbable; yet, inextricably, something which is entirely imaginable, if only we choose to believe.
I hope you do. I hope you think you are a part of something so much more beyond this world than what this world has to offer. I hope so – for, to be a part of a great symphony is one thing; to be so, for all eternity, now that’s truly something to look forward to!
Why am I being perfected? I am being perfected to be in CONCERT with God. In this world and the next, that equals the best jam session I can imagine. If this defines me as marching to a different drummer, SO WHAT!
To march with God is to march with a majority, along with all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we’ll just keep a marching along!
Reflections of a Tin Hatter 