Calling Me Home
2014, Oil on Canvas, 18in x 24in
Painting is my intimate time with the Lord to speak to Him in prayer and listen for His voice. With the worship music blaring, my apron on, and a pallet knife in my hand I am able to spend countless hours painting, singing and praying out loud in my little home studio. Very little of my time is spent sketching; my inspiration for each painting comes from studying the Word of God and seeking meaning through the symbolic images and colors that compose each painting. Journaling and reading allow me to dive deeper into the meaning of the artwork, carrying me further in my walk with God. My prayer is that each painting becomes a platform to share the message of the gospel and inspire others to to contemplate beauty, truth, and the condition of their own hearts.
I have titled this painting “Calling Me Home.” The entryway is bathed in light from above and the warmth of the home radiates down the front steps. Home is where your heart dwells. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus tells us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” As I was painting and praying for your family, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of valuing our faith in Jesus Christ and family as the treasure worth fighting for; forever calling us home.
If our home is where our heart dwells with our God and our family, than we must take special care of our home. While failure is often found around each corner, we continue building the foundations of our home on God’s Love; we lay the stones of Obedience to His Truth; and we fuel the lanterns that dispel darkness and give Light by reading God’s Word. In Hebrews 3:4 it says, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Praise God that the sturdiness and structure of our home does not rely on us! Hebrews 3:6 continues as follows, “But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” When Christ reigns in our heart, He faithfully looks after our home and continues building our eternal treasure within us. Paul tells Peter in 1 Peter 2:5, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” I pray that the Lord daily builds your faith, family, and home with living stones not from this earth, but from our Father in Heaven.
The entryway of a home should be that of a warm invitation. As I painted this entryway, I meditated on the illuminated façade of this home and asked the Lord, Does my own heart exude the light of Jesus Christ and tenderly invite others to enter? C.H. Spurgeon describes that a Christian’s conversation “should be such that all who are about him should clearly perceive whose he is, and whom he serves; and should see the image of Jesus reflected in his daily actions.” In 1 John 1:5-7 and Philippians 2:15, we are called to walk in the light and shine as lights in the world. First, Christ must purify our home and heart internally to be holy in His sight. Then, overflowing from a pure heart is an outward life that walks in the light through action and deed. C.H. Spurgeon gives this illustration:
"I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to His image."
I pray that Jesus Christ shines through you and your family, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).