Have Faith (Dealing with Junk)

I have been struggling emotionally lately. I am wrestling with doubt and fear wishing I could just throw it out of my life. I have been asking God for healing and even to take away feelings from my heart. I could not sleep one night and had a real desire to create something in my craft room. I was frustrated because I did not know what to do. I saw a crumpled piece of cardboard in my trash. I had thrown it away earlier that day when I noticed it was not hard anymore and had wrinkles through out. Plus it was an odd shape. Into the trash it went. After I pulled it from the trash I noticed the leftover canvas sheet that I had glimmer misted in an ombre of blues. It was also going to be disregarded if I did not do something with it. It was pretty, but truth of the matter is I have a lot of stuff and a pretty piece of canvas is easy to forget about in my craft room. I placed the piece over the cardboard and I was amazed that it was an exact match. It fit perfectly. I knew at that point that this piece I was longing to create was something the Almighty was calling me to do. So, at 11:00 pm (I am an early riser, so tend to be in bed by 10:00) I set out to create a work of art.

 Once I adhered the canvas to the cardboard with a heavy body gel medium I embossed the edges with the new Rita Barakat embossing powder. I started painting the mermaid tail. I first glimmer misted the tail with green, turquoises and navy. Once that dried I applied extreme glitter paint by Plaid to make it sparkle. I used the gel medium to adhere the mermaid, added glitter glue to her hair and a clear glaze to the sun and attached the Narwhal as the base. I added some little dew drops in a pretty sparkly blue. Then I just looked at it. I had to think of a title, but nothing came to me other than "Have Faith" which did not make sense to me. I mean, this is a mermaid theme ocean canvas.I could not shake it and really wanted to go to bed, so I titled it "Have Faith" and went to bed.

The next morning I had a revelation. This piece was a symbol of my struggle and hope. That cardboard was a representation of all the crap I wanted to throw away and things I have walked away from. To the world it may look like a lot of garbage, but it really is a great foundation to create a masterpiece on. The gorgeous canvas represents the small beautiful things in my life that get lost among the surrounding stuff. The small beautiful things need to be the back drop to my life so the gifts from above (represented by the Narwhal and mermaid tail by Lisa Kettell Designs and mermaid die cut from Rita Barakat) take center stage. The edges of my life are raw and jagged, but God has come through and covered me in his glory and grace (embossing powder). True, he had to light me up to do it, but isn't the heat worth it? It felt at times like I was being burned, but really He was just framing my life. As far the title, sometimes God has to spell it out.....write it on the wall so to speak. It means just what it says -- HAVE FAITH. Faith in Him and faith in myself.

 Sometimes God gives us good things and lets us decorate it. Just like I was able to paint this tail that Lisa created.

 Just like the ocean with it's waves life can seem like it is knocking me around and I feel like I am going to drown. Then, in the middle of it all an anchor is thrown out that I climb on and look to the Son. Other times I am about ready to get hit by a huge wave that will knock me to the ground and drag me back in the current bumping me against the jagged rocks and corals or life. Right before that happens and often before I see the huge wave God will grab me, pull me under and force me to go back into what seems to be the ocean when in reality he was saving me from getting knocked out by a massive wave. It usually happens when I am enjoying jumping in the surf and don't see what lies just ahead of me. That is why this is an ocean theme -- to show how life is like the sea.

I am not the perfect person or a very "good" Christian. In fact, if the church were to judge me I probably would qualify as a black sheep. I am unconventional in my relationship with God and certainly don't have it all together. God speaks to me different than He may my neighbor and that is okay. We are all created different and God used my art to comfort my heart. I wanted to share it with you and I hope it gives you encouragement in whatever life may have in store for you.

Until next time ~ Happy Crafting!