Time is so precious for the day, yet I cannot carry on my day until I have robbed it of the precious early hours to spend it in watching my Beloved.
He roams through the halls of my heart and mind rearranging the furniture to His liking, adding pictures of Him to adorn the walls with His earthly life. How He came, chose His Father’s will over His own, and became the ransom on a cruel cross that I may be free from that great sin debt I owed are etched in my mind for ever!
He bore the anger of God for all my wanton disobedience of sin. In my mind’s eye there are flashbacks of disregard, shrugging aside what I knew to be sin and blatantly refusing to obey, listening to my wicked heart, being oblivious to the very Voice that brings me His pictures of joy now!!
The largest picture is a little different. It is a painting made by a seasoned artist. The brush strokes are placed, just so, to depict the feelings of the artist about His subject. The colors are mixed and blended to unveil the emotions of the artist, as if he were sharing his own life with the subject. Standing to the side, it actually becomes a mirror!
Its oil paint is movable, living, and changeable! How can that be! Can it be, living art? I’m beginning to recognize features of my own life within the painting. It’s breathing from my past! Showing me reflections of my childhood church, at “watermelon cutting“ socials, as well as with people who built into my life the goodness and faithfulness of God.
As my eyes wander through the painting’s “memories, “I see my wedding, our first home, another city, the birth of my first child, and the doctor saying, “It’s a girl!”
The brushstrokes changed colors and led upward, making mountains, the ruins of an old castle, a bridge, and an ancient city’s walls and cobblestone streets. I recognize my time in Germany!
The brush’s palate held by colors of romance, the love of God, hugging me closer to him, the faces of others appearing in and out of the door, walks in the woods, then a ribbon binding my heart to a golden smile and sparkling eyes, another heart like God’s. This figure held a book, from which the brush pulled from the open pages hues of blue, scarlet, purple, and gold with the whitest pure light encasing it all!
In the right corner, my eye is caught by a deer, drinking deeply from a sparkling stream, perhaps, after being chased by a fox or a wolf, enjoying deep refreshment after being rescued by the creator of the forest tree. I recognize my own times of refreshing and meditation in the quiet reflection moments after my own struggles with the world, family, and my own fleshly desires.
A favorite Bible verse “ringing in the picture” reminds me of a favorite verse, “It’s no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.“ I can see here that this verse has put guardrails on the narrow road I chose to travel. I remember how I’ve bumped them pretty hard sometimes, and the results have been pain, bruises, and missteps, but, oh, what joy I’ve known to see my Savior‘s hand reaching toward me, to set me aright!
Yes, that straight and narrow path can be found throughout the painting, sometimes camouflaged by people and undergrowth in the scenery. But as I look carefully into the living lines, I see it, as the only thin golden narrow line penetrating the breathing movements of this glorious painting! That straight, narrow line of road penetrated all the memories of my past: wedding bells, a baby’s cry, castles, friends, and sparkling streams. It also led me through the shadows of precious deaths, pain and sorrow, and yet, still straight ahead. Pains, sorrow, joy, or delight never deters the straight road, which has now become my delight, my focus, as I travel forward to finish my course set before me, where I am given the Victor’s Crown by Jesus Himself! That is my Future! I can see it now!!
March, 2025
Edited, May 2, 2025
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