By Madeleine L., Independent Student Artist, Grade 11.

Media: Mixed.

Scripture: Psalm 17:15 (NIV), “As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.”

Reflection: God is our Heavenly Father and will walk with us into the bright seasons. He will sit with us on the dark nights, and like any good parent, He sees every bit of loneliness, pain, and struggle we go through. We can lean on God, not only because He sees us, but also because He walks with us, comforts us, and sticks next to us in all things. God’s presence is enough to satisfy us, because He does not leave us alone.

In this piece two whales, one small and one large, are swimming together towards a bright horizon. This image reflects how God has always been our Father and will remain near to us as we go towards the bright horizon of eternity.

To present the whales: I embroidered their images on separate cloths and then adhered them to the canvas. The whales in this piece took 12 hours to create. This time gave me an opportunity to pray over their placement, and I realized they needed to be together.

We are dear to God. He sees us, protects us, and walks near to us always.  God is the God Who sees and the God Who stays.

© Madeleine L., 2022

The post Never Alone first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Hannah F., Southwest Christian High School, Chaska, MN, Grade 11.

Medium: Pencil.

Scripture: Matthew 14:28 (ESV) But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?“

Reflection: For this piece, I wanted to focus on the feeling of “drowning.” It’s such a scary thing when you are underwater and you feel like you can’t swim to the surface. Just as Jesus pulled Peter up, God has been the One to pull me up when I’m drowning in my struggles. He has helped me stay afloat above events in my life that have been extremely difficult.

When I was deciding on the composition of my art, I had a hard time deciding what I wanted the water to be. I ended up choosing to do the person’s hair as the water, because it’s more personal to the individual. Our struggles represent who we are, and they are the things shape and develop character. While they are hard, they make us stronger.

It Is Written: Matthew 14:28 (ESV) “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Pray: Jesus, beneath the surface of what I show to my family and friends, I’m sometimes afraid, maybe even terrified of what lies ahead, and so I cry out, “Lord, save me!” Please take my hand, dispel my doubts, and renew my faith and confidence in You and Your power. Amen.

© Hannah F., 2022

The post Surface Tension first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Natalie Brick, Lake Ozark, MO

Medium: Acrylic.

Scripture: Psalm 28:7 (NIV) “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”

Reflection: Hummingbirds are fascinating birds. They have very high energy needs and metabolisms requiring them to feed continuously throughout the day. Some species can visit more than 1,000 flowers in a day. In the process, they pollinate thousands of different plants! Hummingbirds have outstanding spatial memory and are able to keep track of bloom peaks, remembering for years what flowers they’ve visited and feeder locations.

Pray: Lord, just as hummingbirds draw strength from sweet nectar, so do I as I seek You everyday and desire the nourishment of Your Word and Your presence. I praise You for Your provision and protection throughout the busy tasks of life. I thank You for designing me intricately and marvelously. Help me spread the Good News of Who You are in this world. My heart sings out Your praise all the day long. Amen.

© Natalie Brick, 2022

The post My Strength is in You, Lord first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Barbara Bonnell, Fresh Oil Blogging Artist.

Medium: Watercolor and Digital Art.

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NKJV) “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Reflection: When I think about the unpredictability found in our daily lives, I want to see the storms through God’s eyes. Whether my days move from joy to sorrow or calm to turbulence, I believe that through it all, He is with me as the Guide and Protector of my soul.

I remember reading a poem about ships as metaphors for our life journeys. Ships sail out to sea, moving through the waves until finally out of vision, never to return. Visualizing the ship moving through the water, I think of moments that have occurred in my own past. During those times, a multitude of moments, there have been days with problems, but I have always found that God sees me and cares.

Pray: Dear God, You have encouraged and enabled me to continue living my life in faith as I read the Bible and place my trust in You. Thank You for caring for me through all the stormy waters of life. Thank You for listening to all my concerns and burdens along the way. Surely all my days are in Your keeping and through You my heart can find rest and live in Your peace. Amen.

© Copyright Barbara Bonnell, 2022

The post Stormy Journey first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Leihana W., Southwest Christian High School, Chaska, MN, Grade 11.

Media: Mixed.

Scripture: Matthew 26:10 (NIV) “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me . . . truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Reflection: It is evident that God has always been a “God Who sees.” Throughout the Bible, there are many instances of Him recognizing and honoring, or seeing, a person who would normally go unnoticed or be misunderstood. For this piece, I chose to depict that in a not-so-obvious way.

My focus for this art was the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’s feet with perfume. When the disciples scorned her, Jesus saw her heart of faith and defended her, saying her actions were not just a bizarre waste of money, as was accused, but a God-ordained anointing that would be recounted with the gospel all over the world.

That said, I wanted to capture the essence of the story within the bottle of perfume. The beauty of doing this piece as a “still life” is that it will remain “frozen in time,” forever encasing the memory of the woman with the alabaster jar and what she did for our God.

© Leihana W. 2022

The post It’s My Favorite Scent, Lord first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Diane Tobolt, Fresh Oil Blogging Artist.

Medium: Digital Art.

Scripture: Jeremiah 29:13-14a (CJB) “When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly; and I will let you find me,” says Adonai.

Reflection: Whenever I think about the ancient monks who followed God no matter the cost, venturing out into the desert or across the sea, a longing stirs in my soul to do the same. I love the way they abandoned themselves fully to His call, and yet sometimes I feel afraid to let go and embark on the journey into the unknown. But I remember the words of Jeremiah that God desires “a future and a hope” for me. No matter where or how, whether sea or desert, I want to abandon myself to the future He has planned for me.

I want to hear the melodies  of His heart that sing over me and release me into the fullness of who He made me to be.

Pray: O Father, help me to see You as You are, to come to You with all of my heart. Remind me that the way I see myself is not the way that You see me, that I can trust You with my fears and my follies, that You listen with love and understanding, and that You call me onward to find more and more of You! Amen.

© Copyright Diane Tobolt, 2022

The post Into the Unknown first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Charlotte Laxen Helfritz, Fresh Oil Blogging Artist.

Medium: Watercolor.

Scripture: Psalm 56:3-4 (NIV) “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

Reflection: When I think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, how could I possibly feel He wouldn’t understand what I may be going through in my life? His agony in the garden shows me that He knows exactly what it’s like to be fully human, sorrowful and troubled. But He also showed His Son of God heart and His commitment to fulfilling the Father’s plan and all the Scriptures.

Pray: Jesus, You expressed what Your human heart wanted but yielded to the One Who sent You and His will. It gives me hope to realize that, no matter how alone I feel, I can trust my Father and His will for my life. Thank You, Jesus, for submitting to the cross so that I could live securely in Your presence now and for all eternity. Because of You, I never need to be afraid, and I know my heart belongs to my heavenly Father. You are always with me and allow Your plan for my life to unfold. Help me to trust You. Amen.

© Copyright Charlotte Laxen Helfritz, 2022

The post God Sees My Heart first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Clara L., Southwest Christian High School, Chaska, MN, Grade 10.

Media: Mixed.

Scripture: Matthew 14:28-31 (ESV) But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Faith Statement: In Matthew 14:28-31, when Peter is walking towards Jesus, he is distracted by the wind, and he starts to sink because he fears the strong winds and storm. Similarly, social media, peer pressure, expectations, etc., are very distracting and cause a lot of people to turn away from God in fear of what other people think of them.

Originally, I was going to use graphite pencil and rely on the darks and the lights to express the meaning behind it, but gradually I realized that other media and colors would help exaggerate the meaning behind this work. To show that social media, peer pressure, etc., are  not nearly as important as loving God and holding fast to him, I shaded the things that do not matter to Him with a graphite pencil.

This art helped me grow closer to God, because I did a ton of research and brainstorming about how I could depict this fallen world. I believe that God called me to do this art, because He knew it would benefit me in the long run.

© Clara L., 2022

The post Hold Onto Him first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Lorraine Schiller – Rutland, Massachusetts.

Medium: Acrylic Paint.

Scripture: Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.

Reflection: Roses have symbolized love for many centuries in many nations. The idea behind this piece was how the love of God in our hearts creates bold, instinctive, radical acts of love to a broken world. When I spend time with Him, my heart is transformed, and when He sees a need in people around me, I want to be ready to share this transforming love with them. I want this to be more of an instinct than anything else.

Dear Father, You have sown Your seed of love to the world through Jesus. Let us also sow the seeds of Your love to those around us. You see each and every person. You also see each and every seed. Let us see with Your eyes, and sow with Your love that we might see a garden of beauty bloom in this world!

In Jesus name, Amen.

© Copyright Lorraine Schiller, 2022

The post Garden of Love first appeared on Great Commission Artists.

By Cheryl Barr, Fresh Oil Blogging Artist.

Medium: Watercolor.

Scripture: Psalm 37:4 (NLT) “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.”

Scripture: Matthew 18:3 (NLT) . . . unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Reflection: 2021 was tough. It reminds me of when I cut into an onion one evening and found a large bad spot that began at the bottom and penetrated upwards into the heart of the onion. As I cut further, I discovered I could salvage a good portion. So that started me thinking. What could I salvage from the past year?

I thought of my beautiful granddaughter and how she models the beauty of enjoying simple things. As I realized how important it is to be grateful for those things, even in the hardest years, I decided I wanted to live as she does, finding delight in everyday events and blessings.

Heavenly Father, help me treasure my gratitudes and teach me how to be thankful for the simple pleasures of life. You see my heart. You know all my thoughts and attitudes. Please, Father, as I navigate the challenges of life, give me grace to develop and maintain a childlike faith that delights in the security of Your love and power. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

© Cheryl Barr, 2022

The post Simple Pleasures first appeared on Great Commission Artists.