Lent 2017 _ 19th March

Saturday 19th March

One of today's readings was the Good Samaritan, the other was a wonderful reflection from Jane Williams taken from her book "Approaching Easter."

She says some things that REALLY resonate! Eg "Indifference is the worst enemy of the divine" and " Those who struggle to free the oppressed, feed the poor and heal the sick...they are all singing with the rhythm with which the world was created." Love it!

The accompanying Bible verse was Luke 10:29-37. Verse 29: "Who is my neighbour?"

Seemed so appropriate in today's world where so much is about self and not looking to how we can help others.

So I merrily started with an image of a young African lad, with gorgeous eyes that also almost accused, so direct was the gaze. But that didn't work out lol! Seems I was meant to produce a far gentler piece than I had had in mind!

I had tried to use the downtrodden-looking woman image alongside the young lad's photo, but when I removed his pic and changed blending modes of the textures I had stacked, I loved what appeared! No skill lol, sheer fluke!

Then I went back to the folder of shared resources, provided by course students. I really want to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed as I used a lot from there on my last piece, and now on this piece too!

One image in particular I tried, when blended, looked so much like 'wings' I had to use it! Then the words of Hebrews 13:2 popped into my head: "Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels."

I took a little detail out with Topaz Adjust and made it a tad more painterly and think I'm happy with it like this! As always, I'm torn between more colour and less colour and the same with the detail lol!
TFL!
Bernie x

Lent 2016 - Day 5

Lent Day 5

Whilst reading the devotional for today, it linked me to a few other readings, and amongst those I found this commentary by Jamieson-Fausset-Brown:

Note carefully the language here—not "joy on the part," but "joy in the presence of the angels of God." True to the idea of the parables. The Great Shepherd. The Great Owner Himself, is He, whose the joy properly is over His own recovered property; but so vast and exuberant is it (Zec 8:17), that as
if He could not keep it to Himself, He "calleth His friends and neighbours together"—His whole celestial family—saying, "Rejoice WITH Me, for I have found My sheep-My-piece," etc. In this sublime sense it is "joy," before "or in the presence of the angels"; they only "catch the flying joy," sharing it with Him!

The application of this to the reception of those publicans and sinners that stood around our Lord is grand in the extreme: "Ye turn from these lost ones with disdain, and because I do not the same, ye murmur at it: but a very different feeling is cherished in heaven. There, the recovery of even one such outcast is watched with interest and hailed with joy; nor are they left to come home of themselves or perish; for lo! even now the great Shepherd is going after His lost sheep, and the Owner is making diligent search for the lost property; and He is finding it, too, and bringing it back with joy, and all heaven is full of it." (Let the reader mark what sublime claims Himself our Lord covertly puts in here—as if in Him they beheld, all unknown to themselves, nothing less than heaven in the habiliments of earth, the Great Shepherd above, clothed in a garment of flesh, come "to seek and to save that which was lost")!

It's not the easiest to read, OK, but it made me think in a new way about the short quote I wanted to use on my art piece! I suppose I'd always read it as the angels rejoicing, but this commentary sheds new light - the angels are sharing in the joy! It doesn't stop with the angels; it's not just about the angels...there is joy in their presence - all around them!
So that's the feel I tried to create, keeping in mind that I had only a very short time and needed to keep this simple!
All CU brushes and textures.
TFL!
Bernie x