Tossed to and fro upon the deep
The image of floating paper appeared in my mind one Sunday morning at my breakfast table. When I split the waters, while painting during praise and worship, I felt compelled to turn around, looking directly at the tears in the eyes of our Pastor's wife. Floating words are a part of my life, not connected to any chain of thoughts, and quite often I have to look them up or phone a friend to find who or what to pray or watch for. For instance, when I began explaining this, the word "extemporaneous" floated in my mind. So I just looked it up in my huge Webster Dictionary. "Extemporaneously": "composed, performed, or uttered off-hand, without previous study or preparation; unpremeditated." This "floating word" describes the difference between these inspired works of art and my carefully thought through earlier ones. By "inspired", I mean that I am willing to be made a fool of, trusting that God is doing the leading instead of me. This isn't always polished looking, as I am interdependent with those around me to be "one", as we worship in union, realized in theme, music, timing, message, etc. My "premeditated" period of painting gave me the initial steps of familiarization with the physical materials I use.
To praise and worship, I covered the enormous canvas with the vertical shapes of a landscape.
Earthen vessels walk the vale, chambers of living light, filled to the brim with precious tears, reflecting clear on the surface mirror unveiled in a distant sky, the gleaming glimpses of why - The wiles of the world would embrace them, turn the tears to a trembling tide, 'til the image fair to our great despair, does flutter and fade away. But it washes smooth a few rough spots as it spills o'er the sides of clay - Shadow, echo, dim reflection glimpsed, dear coolness sweet against my cheek, Oh, Spirit, light the way within, 'til there's no room for sin. 'Tho trials bring pain and tears like rain, I yield to the Master's mold, as He transforms this dust into gold.
The 9-11 Twin Tower Disaster occurred exactly one year to the week after God began this image in me. While visiting a Messianic congregation, and enjoying the worship in Hebrew with open hands resting in my lap, it seemed as if I were holding a mound of mannah. In my mind, I saw our flag waving with the fifty stars back in a circle. The vision paused, as the circle overlapping at the bottom, took the shape of a heart, which seemed to say God loves America. For a year I prepared to paint that image. On Thursday, one year later, terrorists took down our trade center, and people began phoning me to pray. I remembered the poem I'd just written, "Oh, to be a Joseph, with fruitful bough hanging heavy beyond the wall, with fruit enough to share with all who pass this way. But unlike a Joseph, I'm rather like a Jonah, who runs the other way, not caring for the the lost and dying who lie along the way. Oh, Lord, swallow me up, and cast me upon the shores of Ninevah. That Sunday, God's Spirit came on me so strong that 20 minutes before leaving for Vista Christian Fellowship, I quit fighting God, willing to be made a fool of, and painted this up front while everyone was worshiping and singing "God Bless America". This was the first of many prophetic images painted to live worship music. When I painted this one to music the following Sunday of 9-11, I was surprised, to see the eagle's eye, the Lord's stripes mingled with the fruited plain, fields of grain and purple mountain's majesty with the eagle flying above the storm. The shine of God's compassion on the crowned eye then had a tear which flowed from sea to shining sea.
I began painting what I thought would be "Surrender." Forming the dove like shape, I stepped back and realized it must be flying downward. It easily embraced the world. The continents forming under my brush resembled a couple. I firmed them up, forming the Lord over the Spirit. I assumed He was embracing the world as was the dove and I was having great difficulty making His hands go downward. I stepped back again and rejoiced, knowing He was facing upward in an attitude of surrender.
Coming, going, living, breathing, Spirit moving, human being ~
