Yesterday I did something tangible! I walked down the stairs to my studio, squeezed paint onto my palette, and painted. The rich smell of walnut oil permeates the canvas as my brush spreads color and joy. I do love the tactile quality of my beautiful paints and pigments. And so, this painting happened: Meadow, oil on canvas, 24″x36″

A meadow is a humble thing. It is neither large nor loud, yet it positively teems with life. Overflowing with grasses, wildflowers, insects, birds, and other small animals, it is a pocket of beauty and delight. Wisdom sings a quiet song here, the buzzing of bees’ wings and the quick rustle of seed-eating creatures. Let’s go outside and calm our hearts, still our minds, and let our senses soak up the wonder of God’s world.

Why is this a matter of consequence? We are surrounded with technology that can be helpful and destructive…

The Tower of Babel is a click away, voices flattened into a myriad of pixels, identities blurred and uprooted in cyberspace. We weaponize our thoughts and opinions, like cannibals we endlessly tear others apart. We joust on Twitter, gnawing each others’ joints and sinews, mistaking pretend words for dialogue. We are the new barbarians, defacing the icons and burning our history. Where is the mystery of being? Can anyone still see the beauty in real life? Surely the virtual world has no virtue, no true dimensional existence, yet it continuously flows, eroding our souls.

May my words and paintings boost people not posts, to go outside and breath in the wonder of creation. Let’s walk hand-in-hand to discover God’s beauty, goodness, and truth.