Insight into The Gate

I had not painted any pictures since my cancer journey began in 2014. And I wasn’t very good at it then, I’ve always found painting very relaxing. My paintings were just for me. I really never intended to share them with anyone outside of immediate family. But I had an image in my head for literally years of a garden with many colorful flowers and a path leading to a gate or an arbor that I wanted to paint. When the story idea for The Gate became clear, my mental picture of the garden was also brought to remembrance. And it was clear that I was supposed to paint the picture for the story. I put it off and hesitated to even get started on it. I hadn’t painted anything for six years. I didn’t even know if my paints were still good. But of course they were, I had all of the equipment I needed and it was all in good shape. God knows! And He wanted me to do this for Him. So, I prayed about it and thought about it. The pieces all came together and He lead me in the direction He wanted it to go as I went along. I think it turned out very interesting and pray that it will bring God glory when others look at the picture and read the story.

Many of the elements included in the painting are for me and my family, for instance the duck, the turtle, the five blue birds and the twenty one roses. But there are other elements that are for everyone and I want to share these. The garden and everything up to the gate are earth, the dwelling place of man. The mostly unseen area beyond the gate is heaven. And like I mention in the story, Christ Jesus is the gate. The rainbow represents the rainbow that is around the throne of God. The six steps leading up to the gate represent the incompleteness of man. We need the Lord to be whole, restored and complete. The cross is somewhat battered and worn, but it endures and is everlasting. The handle on the gate represents choice, man’s choice about who he will serve. There is also grass, sticks and twigs among the flowers, representing possibly the tares among the wheat or the good and the bad on earth.

I am so thankful for those who continue to read and to share these stories. May God bless you!!

Psalms 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.