A New Year
A few years ago I remember watching a TV program about Rolf Harris painting the Queen for one of her annual portraits. It is always interesting for me, a non-artist, to watch how a real artist works. He seemed to start by splogging purple paint onto the canvas and then went from there. Of course by the end of the painting he had produced something amazing. I have very vague memories from when I was quite young of watching Rolf painting on a wall during his TV shows and the same thing happened. You had no idea what he was doing but he always managed to produce something very clever.
I often imagine God as a master painter. I have to admit though, that when he paints the black parts of the painting it can be tough going. Last October we had all sorts of bad news. Lloyd, after coughing like crazy for some months, tested positive to whooping cough (despite a booster immunisation last January). He struggled all through the last half of the school year after being kept awake most nights with the coughing. Matt then had some terrible coughing virus. Although he tested negative for whooping cough he was quite sick and also struggled to get schoolwork done. All of this paled into insignificance when we had the news that a friend, who only a few years ago lost her teenaged son, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy. There was other news about a family I know that I cannot blog here but it is very sad news. And just before Christmas our friends from the states sent news about how the recession is causing financial hardship for them.
When waiting for Anika to do a music exam early in December I was praying and watching the people who were walking by and just wondered how life was for them. I started thinking about how meaningless life was without the Lord and was thankful that he is sovereign. I don't know what the Lord has planned for 2010 but I know he's working on a masterpiece.
There's a busy year coming up for the Q family: Anika's first year of uni, Lloyd's last year of school, Matt's last year of primary school and Mike's first official year of school. My friend starts chemo soon and we keep praying for her. Lloyd still coughs but nowhere near as much.
I feel a bit like I'm in the purple part of the painting now rather than the black part, but, after all, purple is my favourite colour.
I often imagine God as a master painter. I have to admit though, that when he paints the black parts of the painting it can be tough going. Last October we had all sorts of bad news. Lloyd, after coughing like crazy for some months, tested positive to whooping cough (despite a booster immunisation last January). He struggled all through the last half of the school year after being kept awake most nights with the coughing. Matt then had some terrible coughing virus. Although he tested negative for whooping cough he was quite sick and also struggled to get schoolwork done. All of this paled into insignificance when we had the news that a friend, who only a few years ago lost her teenaged son, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy. There was other news about a family I know that I cannot blog here but it is very sad news. And just before Christmas our friends from the states sent news about how the recession is causing financial hardship for them.
When waiting for Anika to do a music exam early in December I was praying and watching the people who were walking by and just wondered how life was for them. I started thinking about how meaningless life was without the Lord and was thankful that he is sovereign. I don't know what the Lord has planned for 2010 but I know he's working on a masterpiece.
There's a busy year coming up for the Q family: Anika's first year of uni, Lloyd's last year of school, Matt's last year of primary school and Mike's first official year of school. My friend starts chemo soon and we keep praying for her. Lloyd still coughs but nowhere near as much.
I feel a bit like I'm in the purple part of the painting now rather than the black part, but, after all, purple is my favourite colour.
posted by Mrs Q @ 4:37 PM
1 Comments:
At January 6, 2010 at 4:20 PM ,
Wendy said...
Thank you for your honesty. There is a lot more pain in this world than we like to admit sometimes! I have a vague feeling that the good wishes we throw out at special times (Christmas, birthdays etc) have little real meaning as we have not much capacity to prevent many of the bad things which happen to people around us.
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