Lark Meadows

This piece is called "Stay Awake"

*TW g*n/s**cide reference.

This piece is called "Where are the children? Why haven't they grown?"

Both of these were done in oil pastels with a little mixed media in the first.

This painting grew out of two verses I couldn't put down.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

I encourage you to think on these verses and pray them. Study them and see where God is calling you to grow closer to Him. He is a loving Father and while surrendering is difficult, the peace it brings is beyond comparison.

He is a good Father. But surrendering is a kind of dying, and dying is never easy.

I have prayed with tears to keep what He was asking for. And still, gently, slowly, it slipped from my fingers like something that was never mine to hold.

What followed was not emptiness. It was a peace that human minds cannot understand.

Months have passed since this painting was finished. The season that made it has closed. But the fight hasn't. My hands still reach for control and I still have to choose, again and again, to open them and bring them to His will.

The more we loosen our grip, the more His Spirit moves in, filling the space we were afraid to leave open. This is the paradox of surrender: in losing, we receive. In releasing, we are filled.

He is calling. What are you holding onto?