“Dear God, please, please, PLEEEASE bring my stuffed animals to life!” I cry out. While sitting on my bed, hands clasped together in desperate prayer, I continue to plead my case with God: “I know you can do it! Pleeeeeasee!”.

As a child I believed, I truly believed that God could do this if he wanted to. That child-like faith can move mountains so certainly it could also bring my stuffies to life! I loved reading the Raggedy Ann and Andy books (as well as the Chronicles of Narnia series). I was caught up in those stuffed animals’ adventures when they were alone, and the wonder of it happening with my own well-loved stuffed animals opened a whole new world of imagination. But I truly wanted those imaginings to be possibilities, to be real.   I achingly wanted God to breathe life into just one of my stuffies so I could talk to it and go on adventures in its world.  However, I was pretty sure this is not the kind of prayer He answers outside of the book world. But just in case… I tirelessly asked.

Many moons later He did answer that prayer, just not in the way my childhood self had expected. He used a more natural method to bring my stuffies to life.  He gave me Boomer,  a Maltipoo dog, 8 pounds big. He is oh-so cute! And he truly looks like a stuffed animal.

Boomer, my real-live stuffy!

Every time I think of how fantastical his cuteness is, I am reminded of my childhood prayers and I know this is God’s way of answering those for “the little kid in me”.

God is always bringing things to life.  Our whole world started with him doing this very thing.  Even after  birth, he keeps on giving us life, and life more abundantly!

“I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” John 10:10b AMP

Being made in His image I love to create, too. Adding color to art is like breathing life into my creations, just as God breathed life into us.

Have you noticed how colors can infuse art with a life of its own? Colors dance and interact with each other, and with the absence of color (the white spaces).  Complementary colors excite each other and make us notice them. Contrasting colors like white and black draw our eye to different parts of a painting you may otherwise not notice. Cooler colors are calming (blues, greens) and warmer colors like reds and yellows excite! Colors draw our attention to certain parts of the artwork as they tell us things about the picture, as they activate emotions inside us to rise up in response. We may leave encouraged or inspired, or we may leave with a sense of wonder or calm.

Colors are to a painting as words are to the page. And we know words have power. 

“The tongue has the power of life and death.” Proverbs 18:21a NIV.

God spoke the whole universe into being with His words.  His words have creating and building power. Our words do too; our words can build us up or tear us down.

1Thessa 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

There isn’t much more meaningful to me than to know that my words or my art have touched the heart of another.  That they have breathed a little life into someone and brought some added light, built up some hope, or increased the joy in their world.

What do you do to encourage or bring life to others? What is most meaning for to you?

I would love to hear from you! Please add your comments below!

Sheep walking through the valley 

“Even when I walk through a valley of deep darkness, I will not be afraid because you are with me. Your rod and your staff—they comfort me” Psalm 23:4. (ISV)

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We lost power in the middle of the night once when there was no moonlight. Since we live away from the center of town, there isn’t much light coming from outside. I have never experienced such deep darkness before. I could see absolutely nothing.  The kids were all little, and they were terrified. So we came to them first, and then searched for flashlights.  As soon as we were with the kids, they calmed right down.  They didn’t like the dark but they weren’t terrified like they had been when they were alone in it. 

Nobody likes going into the “deepest darkness” as the GNT puts it.  Most people prefer to be on the mountain top, loving life, enjoying the view.  But if there were only mountains, then the landscape is not high, it is flat. There is nothing higher than where you already are. And nothing lower. So you never learn to climb.  

Sea turtles need to climb through the sand to get to the water. The climbing is what gives them the strength they will need to swim once they reach the water.  Without that experience, they would not survive.

 We need to learn to climb too.

We need the valley to learn life giving lessons so we can enjoy the mountain.  And to get out of the valley, we have to climb hard and long up dangerous pathways to get to higher ground, hoping we won’t be lost, or eaten by carnivorous critters like bears and wolves. 

But we are never alone. The Great Shepherd is guiding us, protecting us.

Sheep have a lot of dangers in a valley as well. Besides being eaten by wild animals, they can get lost, injured, stuck, or fall over and not be able to get back up on their own (and therefore die). Because of this, the shepherd is very attentive and is always looking out for his sheep. He calls them back when they start to wander, and may use his rod to gently guide them back to the herd.  He notices when one slips away and goes out to find the missing sheep. If a sheep has fallen over, the shepherd will help to get him back on his feet. If he is stuck, the shepherd will use his hooked staff to wrap around him and pull him up. He  keeps watch for wolves and protects the sheep by using his rod to defend against wolves and drive them away.  

The shepherd is fully equipped with everything needed to safely get them through the valley. 

When we are in a valley, we are in it with our shepherd, Jesus. 

He guides and protects us. 

He pulls us out of the mud.

He rescues us from dangerous places.

He puts our feet on safe ground.

He protects us from evil.

He makes sure we make it through alright.

Be encouraged, my friend.  Our God is able to get you through this valley threatening death. He will never leave you or abandon you, and nothing can separate you from him.  (Hebrews 13:5, Romans 8:38, Psalm 139:7-12) 

As much as God loves the sheep and the turtles, his love for you is the greatest of all. 

“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

— Psalm 77:11-12

Twenty-seven years ago, God did an amazing thing! Do you remember what it was for you?  For me, God brought to life Philippians 3:13-14, inspiring me to persevere. I remember because it was one of those moments where I understood something so meaningful to me, that I wrote a poem to capture it.

God is constantly working in us and for us. Sometimes it’s like God takes out his extra-fluorescent highlighter and colors the event to make sure we see it.  You know if God is highlighting something, we need to pay attention and remember it. We need to capture it somehow so it doesn’t escape our fragile memories. “I will remember the deeds of the LORD;” Psalm 77:11

A favorite book of mine, Hinds Feet On High Places, by Hannah Hurnard, illustrates this beautifully.  In case you are not familiar, here are the tidbits of pertinent information:

The main character, Much-Afraid, lives in the Valley of Humiliation.  She is trying to reach the High Places but she is crippled and afraid. The Chief Shepherd invites her to come with him to the High Places, but to do that she needs to be healed and transformed. So the Shepherd promises her that he will help her develop hinds feet so she can live in the mountains.

All sort of things happen along the way to the High Places. Every time she encounters a hardship of some sort, she becomes fearful again, and cries out for the Shepherd to help her. He comes quickly to help, instruct and comfort her. She then builds an altar at that location to remember the promise or lesson she learned.  To remember this, she takes a leftover stone from the altar and saves it in a small pouch.  When she would feel lonely and hopeless, filled with doubts, she would look in the bag and remember each lesson she had learned; each promise given. Now encouraged and empowered, she embarks up the difficult and sometimes confusing path to the High Places.

There is something important about creating with our hands and building something tangible that we can carefully preserve:  a journal, a piece of prose, a poem, a piece of art, etc.  We need something to refer back to and strengthen our memory of these important moments.  Each creation we build or craft is like a stone from the altar. We can reflect back on the memories they stand for, and step up on those truths and promises as we meditate on them.

A real flesh and blood example of someone who recorded his pivotal moments is King David:

“I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” Psalm 77:11-12

David sure had a lot of pivotal moments in his life, fighting giants and being hunted by a crazed King, and of course the whole incident with Bathsheba and Uriah.  And now all these years later, we have the blessing of his recorded memories and miracles in the Psalms!

When the days become difficult and full of disappointment, heartache or despair it can be difficult to recall these events on-demand under all that stress.  But we can easily remember to go to our “pouch of stones” and look at all the promises we have collected, all the times God spoke to us. We’d see all the answered prayers,  remember all the times that God pulled through for us.  And we’d remember how profoundly loved and well cared for we have been over all these years; another promise kept! We will be filled with courage to keep trusting, to keep going. Each stepping stone lifting us higher, making us stronger.

Our hinds feet are developing as we travel to the higher places with God.

We can stand firm on these promise-filled stones because we remember what He has done and we know that He is able, and He is good, loving and trustworthy to provide the very best for us.

"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  Psalm 18:2”

Be encouraged today my friends: record your memories, collect your stones, and craft them into something you can hold on to.

Let Jesus lift you up and hold you strong!

One day many moons ago, I saw the most beautiful art in a bible on social media. I couldn’t believe how enchanting the art was… how perfect and creative and how on earth did she put that on a page of the Bible?

I had to learn more. I wanted to do this, too.  So I began dabbling in what I learned was called Bible Art Journaling.  The initial art I had seen online was by an amazing artist, Valerie Sjodin. (She has a whole class on Bible art Journaling. You can check it out here.)

When deciding how to illustrate a verse or passage on a page in the Bible, I begin by meditating on the scripture until a concept, idea or thought forms and a picture comes to mind. Then I paint that picture on the delicate pages of my bible, careful to make sure I could read the words under the art.

It was in this process where I began to notice whispers from the Holy Spirit saying “Try this.” or “What will happen if you do that?”.  As I followed this guidance I learned a lot of things about art, and how different materials work together.

'I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel. ' Psalms 32:8 CSB

Of course God instructs us for more significant purposes, as well. But he does care about the little things too. He cares about what we care about. He is interested in us; we are his humans that he created to have a relationship with.

Who better to guide us in creativity, than the One who created all things?

I have discovered that creating brings me to a beautiful, calm place; just me and God. My stress disappears as we spend time together. It is very much like the old hymn, In The Garden, by C. Austin Miles in 1912.

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain: And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

I'd stay in the garden with Him
Tho' the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go; thro' the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.

What have you found that brings you to a similar “garden”? I would love to hear from you. Comment below!

Do you ever find it hard to begin? When I was a kid, I used to get nervous about the first day of school. I remember having dreams of getting lost in the quarter-mile long building, running all over trying to find my class. But even worse was the inevitable interruption I would cause with my late arrival, red face and frantic look.  Perhaps you have had a similar dream?

Most of us are not in school anymore but there are still plenty of new beginnings in life.  Big projects like a new job or small ones like writing an important letter happen every day.  I often hear people talk about the deer-in-the-headlights feeling when starting a new project. The thought “now what?” quickly erases all prior ideas that brought the blank page before us in the first place. Splashing the first paint on the new canvas, or typing the first words on the computer can be intimidating because you don’t want to mess it up.  (Insider secret: a lot of artists solve this by purposefully messing up the new paper or canvas with scribbles, collage or random marks just so it is no longer blank.)

Intimidation is fear in disguise; fear of making a mistake, wasting supplies, wasting time, being rejected, etc.  And we all know that Fear is a liar.  Fear tries to destroy us before we even get to start.

God on the other hand, is the master of beginnings.  He created all the firsts, including the day of your first. Even though we may be dreading the beginning step on the path we have to take, God is there with us, taking us out of the cold intimidation to the warm fire of His presence. He re-assures us with His Word and comforts us with His Spirit. We relax, taking the instrument He hands us, and make this next beginning graciously begin.

If you are one who is facing a difficult first, or an intimidating project, remember that we are never alone in it.   We have our gracious Hero right beside us, guiding us and encouraging us in our new creation. Our new beginning quickly turns from frantic fear to a treasured time that we want to cling to.

Together with our Creator, we sit in His love by the fire, and hear him say one more time, “Fear not, I the Lord your God am with you. I, who created all the firsts is waiting to take you by the hand into your first.”

“Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9b

Please comment below, or post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!