Art Update

For those of you trembling in anticipation on the edges of your swivel chairs, wondering what I finally decided to create during Girl Craft Night (all 2 of you), the answer is NONE of the options I considered. That's life: we make our plans, but sometimes they just don't happen. 

Happy are the flexible. :)

My first choice (thanks to those who voted!) was the jewelry rack, mainly because my poor little jewelry tree is staggering under the weight of too many mismatched beads and baubles. But...I wasn't about to shell out 50 bucks for a frame at Hobby Lobby. Why can't shabby chic ever be shabby cheap?

Second choice: the painted ceiling medallions as wall decor. Same problem, only the cost would have been around $80. Also, the ones at home improvement stores are made of foam and plastic, which is very hard to paint unless you buy additional primer.

So here's the great reveal...please don't laugh. I never claimed to be a professional artist.

The idea was to create four paintings, each representing one of the four types of soil in Jesus' parable. (Obvioulsy, an evening was not enough time to finish all four, which means that I have an excuse for another artsy night!)

If you were ever in Sunday School as a kid, you'll remember that in one of his stories, Jesus described the average farmer as he scattered his seeds in a field. The farmer's strong arm would have thrown the seeds in a wide, graceful arc to cover as much ground as possible. Of course, that meant that seeds went everywhere, and that not all of them grew well.

The seeds that fell on the path were eaten by birds.

Those that fell on rocks withered under the sun because they had shallow roots.

Those that fell among weeds got choked.

But those that fell on the plowed, rich, deep soil grew and produced a crop.

But Jesus was a carpenter, not a visiting lecturer on agriculture, and he was speaking to our hearts about our hearts. The seeds represent the Word of God, and the soils are the hearts of people who hear it. 

The parable of the soils has been part of my mental library since before I could read, along with Grimms Fairy Tales and Bambi. Even though I've understood that Jesus was speaking beyond mere seeds and dirt, it's so easy to stop there and not ask the hard questions. Is my heart hard and unwilling to let God's truth penetrate deeply, like the rocky soil? Is it so full of noise, anxiousness, and other concerns that His truth is choked? 

To be honest, I have times when both are true. Just this week, God was showing me his goodness and telling me that he forgives me more freely than I do, but there was a part in me that was unwilling to believe he could be that good. At that moment, the lie, "God holds grudges like a human" was like a stubborn rock in my heart, keeping his truth from coming in. At other times, I think my heart-dirt is getting softer, and I can see the results.

Which of the soils do you most identify with?