NEW FAITH

By Lynn Downham

Years ago, I did a painting called The Case of Faith when my faith was new and in its “spring” season. Mike, my husband, was offshore in the Gulf of Mexico on an oil rig supply ship so I was alone again in the big log house. I was working in pastels at the time and wanted to do something reflective, like glass or metal as an exercise. Our neighbor from Trinidad had just the thing, a shiny brass pitcher and he let me borrow it for the stilllife.

I proceeded to set up the still-life as one does, by collecting various items that you wouldn’t mind painting, and I decided the offshore chart of the Gulf of Mexico where Mike was working would make an interesting, albeit challenging, background. Since I was painting at night, the window to the left became another reflective surface just like the vase and the pitcher.

One of the books in the painting was chosen purposefully. Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Faith, had recently taught me just who Jesus is and I wanted to include it in the painting. The antique cross was added as my new faith was preeminent on my mind in those days, but it still needed more. More? It was already a very busy painting and long before I had learned to or wanted to simplify my work. And then I saw them.....the little rubber animals!

Well, NOW, I have to digress a moment. When I was 5, and I do mean 5 years old, the dentists were handing out little rubber animals to good little children after their dentist appointments. I was in love with them. My mother looked for them, finding many, and today I still have this collection of 40 animals on their own tiny shelf in back of my studio easel. They are 1 3/8” to 1 1/2” tall and all of the animals no matter whether a mouse or an elephant are in this size range. I did try giving them away once to my niece when she was young, but she did not fall in love with them, so one day in Florida, I receive a package from my mother in North Carolina. I opened it and there were all the little animals with a big pink heart that said, “We Missed You!”

So, I have lots of art that features these guys, the little rubber animals, because they’re in my head, couldn’t get them out if I tried. It was a natural jump to include several of them in the painting, “The Case of Faith”. The gray owl on top is for “Wisdom” and the lion for “Courage”. The little guy over on the end? That’s Satan, being played of course by the sea serpent. Look! He’s about to fall over the edge! And you know, I can’t find him right now. He disappeared.

The reflective exercise? It was a success. I thoroughly enjoyed painting the pitcher, vase and window. I can even see myself in the reflection on the pitcher. But what does this have to do with spring? Looking back at this painting, (and I still have this one), I am reminded, just like we are all reminded when we look back at our collective testimonies of our faith journeys, that our faith is not only new at its beginning, but with every new testimony or example of God working in our individual lives, our faith is new, again and again, just like the spring, with every touch of the Master’s hand!

Have a beautiful Easter! Lynn

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” II Corinthians 3:18