Painting Shadows
Promise:
God is good all the time. Even in bad times.
Passage:
What colors come to mind when you think of shadows? Black, gray, dark colors undoubtedly spring to mind.
I recently painted a picture that had shadows in it. I started by using black and gray and something was off. I experimented with lighter grays and darker charcoal shades. It was frustrating as I continued to overwork the canvas trying to find the right color.
Then I did what I should have done at first, I studied a shadow through observation. I put a mug on the table and observed the shadow it cast. And realized that it wasn’t casting a gray or black shadow. It was just tinting the surface color to a darker shade of the same hue.
I went back to the canvas and mixed a little black (a tiny amount actually) into the color of the background of the painting. I started painting the shadows and immediately could see the difference. The darker tint was realistic.
Through all of this practice and reworking, I learned a great insight. The shadows of our life don’t change or remove the good that is there. They simply tint it. As my friend, James Barnett writes in his book Blue Skies, there are still blue skies above the clouds.
And shadows in real-life, not those frozen in paintings, move and change as the light changes. What is in the shade in the morning is in bright sun by the afternoon. What is shadowed in one season is a highlight of another. In 1 Chronicles 29;15, our days on earth are described as a shadow for this reason. We, like our circumstances, come and go.
Thankfully, our God is described as the “Father of lights,” by the New Testament author James, who continues that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17)
Practice:
One of my favorite scriptures in all of the Bible is Psalms 121. In it, God is described as close as the “shade on my right hand” (verse 5). Using this as inspiration, take your hand on a walk. Around your home, around your neighorhood, or out to a park. Observe the light on your hand in different circumstances. In nearly full dark. In heavy sunlight. In speckled shadows like when sunlight passes through a tree. Notice the color of your skin under different lights. The texture of the top of your fingers. Perhaps you are wearing jewelry that changes colors in the light.
Now, rub two fingers together. With a touch that allows you feel the ridges and edges of your unique fingerprints.. Consider how your fingerprints do not change whether your hand is in the shadow or the light. Rub them together for at least 10 seconds focusing on feeling your fingers. Adapt the activity to your body and circumstance.
Pause:
Your fingerprints are unique to you. In all of humanity there has never been anyone with the same exact ridges and swirls that you see on your hands. And they do not change in the light. Ponder this truth and journal a prayer below, thanking God for all that makes you unique. How he created you to function in various circumstances. How he is a God that doesn’t change even when it feels like everything around us is changing.
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