Thursday, July 12, 2018

Righteousness, Peace & Joy...

Hi friends,

One of the things I love about creativity is color. I love seeing different color combinations work together and the amazing range and blends you can create when mixing and combining colors. The thing that is amazing about color is that there are only three primary colors that can be combined to make the entire spectrum of color (think about how a color printer can print an endless variety of images using just three colored cartridges!). This fact about color popped into my head when I was planning and creating a page in my Bible for the truth about the Kingdom of God found in Romans 14:17. While I was meditating on righteousness, peace and joy, I began to think about these qualities like primary colors. I believe God wants to paint the canvas of our lives with the primary kingdom characteristics of righteousness, peace and joy. With these qualities in combination, any number of beautiful pictures are possible, when we allow God to develop these qualities in us through the work of His Holy Spirit.


When illustrating this page I wanted to use the primary colors of paint to represent these three characteristics. In my mind, red represents righteousness because it is only through the blood of Jesus that we can be made righteous in God's sight. Blue represents peace because it is a calm and cool color. Yellow represents joy because it is a bright and happy color (think grinning emojis!). As I painted these colors onto this page I began to see them blend into greens and purples, as different quantities of each color mixed together. Taking the analogy a bit further, I thought about the black and white I used as being like the Word of God, giving definition and clarity to the overall piece of art. Finally, I used water to apply and blend the colors together, and this spoke to me of the work of the Holy Spirit, who is continually wanting to apply righteousness, peace and joy to the canvas of our lives.


I got a bit carried away applying the paint and realized that some of the words had too much paint and ink on them to read. Normally I do try to leave the text as readable as possible, but if I don't manage that, then I don't worry as this is not my reading and studying Bible (I have plenty of others that I use for those purposes!). This is my creative Bible, where I meditate on and play in God's Word as His child. I believe that it is more important that the Word is hidden in my heart than preserved uncovered on the page, but I realize that is not everyone's conviction and that is absolutely fine. Maybe it's time for me to move more into my Interleaved Bible!

I used some new Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets for this page, including Sunshine Girl Alpha and Life of Jesus, as well as one of my favorites: Bitty Minnie Alpha.



Next time you are playing with paint, pencils or ink, can I encourage you to meditate on these kingdom qualities of righteousness, peace and joy, and ask the Lord to reveal to you how He is developing these on the canvas of your life?

Every blessing...
x Amy x

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