Collage: Tattered Pieces

 

This piece was actually done some time ago when I was really struggling to accept some things in my life.  At the time I wasn’t tuned into the significance of it all.  But now, reflecting back, God was in it the whole time.

This is a collage’ on cardstock.  The flower (if you see it as a flower) is made up of torn pattern pieces.  The butterfly is also cardstock and they are all glued together by the decopauge technique.  The doodling all around the edges (and you will see this on quite a bit of my art and crafts) is just therapy.  It’s a process I just started doing one day and was amazed at the time I was able to pass and the thought process it provoked.  It also gives me reflection time and a long conversation with God.  But since (somehow out of the blue) I began doing this, I noticed that it wasn’t such a revelation, many are doing it.

This piece really stood out to me this morning, the bits and pieces of the torn pattern and the beauty of the moth shining above it all.

The torn pattern pieces, as you might also be thinking, represent our lives as we live on this earth and experience events that, well, feel like they are tearing our hearts into pieces.  How it all comes together to make a flower like shape, tells me of how God can take all those pieces and mold and shape them into something that makes sense.  Into something that can become beautiful, but not perfect.

The moth, as it stands out in it’s beauty, represents the power of the Holy Spirit, how He is there at all times in our lives, watching over all those torn bits and pieces of our hearts, all the while letting us know that He is in control and everything is going to be alright. The battle has already been won!  He takes all those bits and pieces and keeps them together, refining us.  We may be torn and tattered from some of the decisions we have made in our lives or by the hurt others have caused us for no reason we can think of, but God will mold all that together into something useful, if we will just let Him.  He will be glorified and out shine all the tears and tragedies that we have experienced.  He is standing in front of that torn flower, shielding it, protecting it and showering it so it will know that His Grace and Love are sufficient.  It is important and can still be used.  We are important and He can still use us for His Glorification.

That flower may be torn, but it can still be used, as a flower.  It may not be perfect, but it is still has a purpose.

Have you thanked God for keeping the broken pieces of your heart together?  I pray He will use my tattered heart to do something good for His sake that will Glorify His name, spread His Living Word and cause someone to smile and acknowledge that He is Lord and King.

Have a wonderful day!

God, Grace, Glory

 

 

 

God’s Glorious Grace!  Thanks so much for that!

There was a law at one time that no one could live up to.  God sent His only Son to die on a cross so that we could be freed from that law. Blood was shed so that we could have the freedom to live our lives as best we could for God’s Glory without living in fear that we were always making God mad.  God will never take that away from us.

There was a law at one time that others felt would take their freedom away from worshipping their God the way they felt was right.  God put it in the hearts of those who believed their freedom was being threatened, to do something about it.  Blood was shed.  America was born and we were no longer under those laws.  Will we let these rights be taken away from us?

Just like God expected a Man to stand up and do what was right for His people, just like God expected men to take a stand one time against being controlled, He expects it now.

Will we let the freedoms we have had for years be taken away?  Those who are trying to tell us how and when we will worship our God will not win.  They will not prevail.  The battle has already been won.  I guess they didn’t get the memo!

Even though the battle has already been won, don’t you want to be on the winning side?

What are you doing?

God, Grace and Glory!

Art: God is Always There

As I worked on this painting, putting little dots of fall colors in the trees, I thought of moments in our lives that God has blessed us.  Each dot that is suppose to represent the leaves also represented to me, memorial moments God has given to me.  For times in our lives where memories are all we have of some of the people we love, we do at least have our memories.

While placing each little leaf on each tree, the bright leaves made me think of the wonderful times with each of my children.  As I put the darker colored leaves on the trees,  I thought of sad or stressful times in my life I wish sometimes I could forget.  I tend to dwell on the darker times, but as I painted each leaf, I realized that there are just as many great and wonderful memories as there were, not so wonderful memories.

So I asked myself why would I dwell on the negative?  The negative makes the positive all the more better and all the more brighter and all the more wonderful.  Even though, as I looked at the outcome with quite a bit of dark, it is overcome with a beautiful veil of the sky.  This bright sky makes me think of how God is there all the time.  We are so busy looking at all the moments and letting the negative take us over that we forget, He is always there, hovering over all those moments and loving us.  We forget to look up and remember that He is in control.  All the bright and dark leaves are necessary in our lives.  Mixed together they make a beautiful landscape, a beautiful life that God gives to all of us.  The striking contrast in the sky against the land still all blend together to make one wonderful life with God in it and in control of it all.

So don’t forget to look up, thank God, look at the bright side.  No matter how many dark leaves there have been in your life, there are still the bright ones to dwell on and be thankful for.  There is still that bright and wonderful sky, God is still there, always there, blending it all together for good.

Back to the Art

So here’s the dilemma with my painting.  Maybe you can help me.  It seems I am always doing something, out of the ordinary,  not the standard, traditional way others have always done it.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.  And so I have this…………………

I have a pretty picture that probably should have been on canvas, but I wanted to put it on wood (paint sticks) and in a frame I would paint myself (stretcher strips).

Here is the finished product.

 

Have a lovely day.

If you are interested in just purchasing a print of this painting, just go to the Purchase Prints link on the left of this page.

The Rhythm of God’s Grace Art

Is your heart tuned in to the rhythm of God’s Grace?

Hmmmm…..

What does that mean?  Well, I can only give you what it means to me and you can agree or disagree and take it from there on your own.

Many years ago as I sat in the choir beside the pastor’s wife, we were chatting before service time.  She confided in me that she had a sin in her life that she could not seem to overcome.  She named the sin and asked that I keep her in my prayers.  Feeling compassion for her I also shared a sin in my life that I was just beginning to have a struggle with and I too named my sin, hoping that it would make her feel that she was not alone in her battles.  Instead, she turned to me and told me that I must no longer sing in the choir that I had open sin in my life and it would not glorify God if I was seen singing in the church choir and then seen out in public “committing my sin”.  It was early in my walk with God and I was really confused.

Thank you God for your Grace, the greatest gift given to us through the loss of your Son, Jesus Christ.  Thank you for helping me to learn that there is no one so much better than the other as to call themselves a judge over our lives to decide whether or not we are worthy to do this or that.  Perfection is not something obtainable here on this earth, when we walk through the door of death and live in heaven with you, then we will be as perfect, in the way you choose for us, as you allow us to be.  That’s as close as we will ever come.  And I thank You for that.

I know that Your Grace does not give us freedom to do whatever our human desires tempt us to do, but as we struggle from day to day with those temptations it’s a wonderful thing to know You’ve got us covered.

If you’d like to know how to build this wall decoration just click here to see the instructions.

In addition to those instructions, for this particular craft, I used Apple Barrel Lilac Mist acrylic paint, wood buttons, a wood button heart painted with Ceramcoat Tompte Red by Delta.  I also used a paper doily as a stencil with Apple Barrel White acrylic paint.

Let me know if you make this craft, share your pictures with me.  I’d love to see what you make.

Have a gracefully crafty day!

Inspired by God’s Love

I guess when you first look at this crafty little plaque, you might not, at first, think about God’s Love.  I haven’t ran across many people in my life time that make me think of God’s Love.  But He still gives all of us many opportunities to see His Love for us.
He shows us His Love in the flowers, birds, trees, the air we breath, and the freedom to live our lives for Him as we see fit to glorify Him.  There are countless ways He shows His Love for us, too many to mention here.  He freed us from the law and replaced that law with Grace by giving the life of His only Son to free us.
As I groped to find a way to express what makes me think of love here on this earth, I thought of the beauty of God’s creation that He shows Himself through for everybody to see.
It might be hard to see God’s Love through people all the time, but as the bird sings, the flowers bloom, the butterfly flitters by, the sun rises and sets, the tides roll in and out, the trees sway in a gust of wind and the rain falls to clear away the dust and give life, we can definitely see Him and feel His presence.
Thank you God for giving me a way to share the love you have put in my heart with others.
Today, when a little bird calls out to you with a sweet song, I hope you will think about the only One that could have ever put that song in that little beating heart.  What a wonderful gift to give.

For a tutorial on how to make this sweet little frame and canvas to decorate for a gift or for your own home just click here.  You can have one ready to decorate in 5 easy steps.

Free From the Cocoon

Listening to Beth Moore this morning about law and grace made me, once again, compare our spiritual lives to the butterfly.  The metamorphosis is the one thing I always picture in my mind when I think about the changes that take place in us when we allow God in.
But this morning as I listened to her speak about grace, I just envisioned the caterpillar in the cocoon of the law, unable to move, to stretch, to spread it’s wings and fly.  Coming out from under the law represents our wings growing and once we begin to understand grace, we can finally spread our wings and begin to fly.
And this is what I thought of……………………

Thank you so much for freeing me from the law and giving me wings so I could fly.  So I could be free to worship You and live my life in accordance to Your will Lord, instead of man’s.  And I thank my daughter for sharing this with me, she knew I needed it greatly and would appreciate it.
If you have any comments please share them with me.  You can visit me on facebook too and we can get a discussion going about God’s wonderful, glorious grace.

If you would like to see the tutorial about how to make this crafty little frame and canvas to decorate for less than $5, just click here.