When I’m at my art easel, secondhand information just won’t do.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and, yes, even though drawing and painting isn’t as easy for me as it used to be, I still love to get in front of my art easel. Let’s say I’m working on a painting of poinsettias, I just have to have a vase of fresh poinsettias to study. There’s no way a photograph can convey that real dark red tone, or those real shadows, or that little crown of yellow and red at the center. I remember when I finished an art project that included drawings of thirty-eight pairs of hands. I hired a model who could stand next to my easel and pose his hands this way and that. The result? Those thirty-eight hands look real.
When I fail to study the real thing, my paintings show it. They lack life if I’ve only worked from photographs or other people’s ideas. I just have to go out to a florist and get a pot of actual flowers. Or I have to have a model. I once did a drawing of sparrows and I knew I just had to study the real thing. Well, I couldn’t pin down an actual bird, but I did find a very life-like little sculpture of a sparrow that looked almost real… and I lit it and I used it as my model and as a result, the final rendering looks just as real. You have to study the real thing. A painting will lack life if you only use photographs.
And what is true for the artist, is true for the believer. So many Christians settle for secondhand information as they seek to know the Lord better. Some only get to know the Lord through other people and their experiences with the Savior. So many Christians feel energy from a friend’s testimony and then attempt to transfer that energy into their own life. Or they listen to a captivating story about someone’s life being transformed, and they tell others and pass it on… and it’s so funny how our mind can convince us that simply in the re-telling, we think we’ve had the experience! But that’s secondhand, and it won’t work.
If a painting is to shine with life, it must represent the real thing. If a Christian is to shine with the light of Jesus, it means taking time to get close to the real thing, or I should say the real Person. Not the re-telling about Jesus from someone else. The closer we draw to Jesus, the more our life will look, feel, and be… genuine. First John 2:3 says, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” Now there you have a powerful statement, right? We can have absolute certainty that we have come to really know Jesus if we obey his commands. Obedience is the key to knowing the real thing, the real Person. When we read the Word, the Spirit speaks to our heart, prompting us to obey. It’s the real and only way to know the Lord.
I hope you’ve been blessed today by this special insight about my artwork because I sure do love to paint and draw! And I love sharing my artwork with others. And that’s exactly what I’d like to do with you today. You see, I originally painted three Christmas designs which the team here at Joni and Friends decided to put on Christmas cards – and I tell you, they are so beautiful. Some of the cards are embossed; all have beautiful gold foil-lined envelopes. These are really elegant cards and I’d like to send you three samples with envelopes – I know you’ll enjoy using my artwork on these cards with your friends and, who knows, you may even want more! At any rate, visit me today at joniandfriends.org and when you ask for your free cards we’ll send you the cards and envelopes right away in plenty of time to use for Christmas. Again, that’s joniandfriends.org or you can always call toll free 888-522-5664. See you later, friend… until next time, on Joni and Friends.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends