The artist is a servant who is willing to be a birthgiver. In a very real sense, the artist (male or female) should be like Mary who, when the angel told her that she was to bear the Messiah, was obedient to the command. Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, “Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.”
Madeleine L’Engle
•build•
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. When God inspects us with His searching and refining fire, will He detect that we have built enterprises of our own on the foundation of Jesus? (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
Oswald Chambers~
•away•
•fly away•
a swallow tattoo
on this heart
of mine
seasonal swoops
of satisfaction
freedom in a
fork-tailed
friend, black-blue
russet-chested
glad you are
back, right on time
my heart sorely
needed an ink-infusion
of set-me-freedom ~
A.M. Pine 🌲
•bursting•
The world is bursting with wonder, and yet it’s the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder.
Oliver Burkeman
The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one. He had a special feeling for what he called the “correct miscalculation,” for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers.
Yoko Ogawa
These two very different books have converged in my heart recently. I’m not finished with Four Thousand Weeks, but the sense I’m getting from both books is THIS moment you are in is what you have. Be grateful. Relish it. Wallow in it. Enjoy. I absolutely adored the audiobook of The Housekeeper and The Professor. How would you live if you had 80 minutes of memory before it starts over? What really matters in a person’s life? What is happiness? Do we need more, more, more of anything? Just bursting with gratitude for THIS moment.
What’s on your heart today? I’d love to hear! ♥️🌿🌸🪺🪴🌷
•obedient•
If Jesus ever commanded us to do something that He was unable to equip us to accomplish, He would be a liar. And if we make our own inability a stumbling block or an excuse not to be obedient, it means that we are telling God that there is something which He has not yet taken into account. Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.
Oswald Chambers
•five•
My baby turned five yesterday. ♥️ I’ve been contemplating having more teenagers and young adults than littles. It’s sobering and beautiful.
~
•inevitable•
The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.
Robert Henri
•favor•
Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands – establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17 CSB
•gifts•
~What little gifts are popping up around you? 🥰🌿🌷🪺🪴~
•place•
Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in.
Wendell Berry
•expectancy •
We live ever on the edge of expectancy, she thought, whether we know it or not; ever with our eyes on the line of light that shines through the crack of the door.
Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch, p. 59
He is Risen 🌷🌿♥️
Happiest Easter, friends. May your joy be full. ♥️