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. 

You may have noticed I paint a lot of landscapes with reflections. That’s because of how much fun it is to do, especially when it actually looks like it is a reflection when it’s done :)

My most recent landscape painting I call “Joyful Reflections”.

My goal was to paint a scene that evokes feelings of joyfulness, so I chose warm colors to add to the trees and shrubs, since they are known to cause the viewer to have happy feelings float to the surface. It is also fun to change up colors you’d expect to see in a landscape, and they provide a nice contrast to all of the cooler greens and blues.

For the image being reflected, I wanted to add more detail to help it stand apart from the reflection.

So I added some scribbles and stipplings to give definition to some trees. That was an exciting kind of scary thing to do because I didn’t want to ruin the painting and you can’t undo a micron pen!

But I had no intention of it being perfect. Loose, free and fun is what I was going for! Without that, where is the joy?

Once I had the main picture done with the background detailed and the girl and kayak in place, all the focus was to the right of the painting. I needed something to balance out the left side.

I love Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond painting. so I thought I’d try to add some lily pads and water flowers to the surface of the water. .

I used gouache and my favorite iridescent sparkly watercolor to help the pads and flowers to stand out from the reflection.

How fun is that? These photos don’t really capture the effect as well as viewing it in person, but the lily pads are quite fun!

Don’t you want to play hopscotch on them to get to the dry land?

The final piece achieves the goal of being joyfully magical!

It has some things I wish I could change, like the purple tree from being in dead center of the painting, but this painting was never about being perfect, it was about having fun, experimenting, and painting some joy.

When we get hung up on perfection, creativity runs right out the door. This paintings very beginnings were born out of a technique that eliminates a lot of control. By using it, you make random leaf-like patterns by pressing crumpled saran wrap into wet watercolor and wait for it to dry. Doing this left behind the neat textured background that I used to shape the trees and bushes.

The saran wrap technique leaves a lot up to chance. It does not create a perfect mirror image from the top half to the bottom. The painting started out perfectly imperfect! I worked from that first layer of playing with textures to come to this final painting.

The imperfections that result are born out of joyful creativity, experimenting, and having fun playing with new techniques.

Sometimes you just need to let go of “just right” to jump into the relaxing, fun flow of the art.

I would love to hear from you! Please comment below, or by email (merri@artsandblessings.com) or for quicker interaction with me as well as with other readers, post your comment on my facebook page! I can’t wait to hear from you!