Artist: Charlotte Laxen Helfritz.
Medium: Watercolor.
Scripture: “Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’ ‘What things?’ he asked.
‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.’
He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'” Luke 24:13-32
Source of Inspiration: In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado.
Reflection: This abstract painting (I usually don’t paint this way but it seemed to represent the turmoil of this time) starts, stops, and changes color in a way that I just let my brush create as it went…letting it express the feelings I was experiencing. Spaces of white were left and then filled in with little “yellow lights.” It represents the tremendous changes that have taken place in my life over the past two years. I remarried, left a home that I had known for over ten years, found a new church family, dealt with health issues, as well as finding new purpose in my artwork. Everything in the world was changing quickly as well. In Max Lucado’s book, In the Eye of the Storm, he has a chapter on “Doubtstorms.” I identify, because I had wondered why things were overwhelming and I couldn’t sense God as I had in the past. The lights in the painting represent the little ways that God had revealed Himself to me when I stopped to really look. He is present all the time in real and wonderfully good ways.
Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, thank you for always being there even though I may doubt your presence. Help me to stop and look for the lights you send each day through circumstances, people, and moments of clarity. Please let me continue to share those moments to encourage others as you encourage me.
Copyright © Charlotte Laxen Helfritz