Oh, to see the dawn [The power of the cross] : Stuart Townend
COLOSSIANS 1: 18 · CORINTHIANS (2) 5: 21 · ISAIAH 53: 5 · ISAIAH 55: 11-12 · JOHN 19: 30 · LUKE 24: 7 · MATTHEW 27: 45 · MATTHEW 27: 51-52
Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.
This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us,
Took the blame, bore the wrath:
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face
Bearing the awesome weight of sin;
Every bitter thought,
Every evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.
This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us,
Took the blame, bore the wrath:
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Now the daylight flees,
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
‘Finished!’ the victory cry.
This, the power of the cross:
Christ became sin for us,
Took the blame, bore the wrath:
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death,
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.
This, the power of the cross:
Son of God, slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.
So I was watching a teaching and admiring the way the speaker's face just reflected light so wonderfully off the forms of his sunburnt skin. Yellow greenish highlights on the forehead encapsulated by burnt orange and reddish hues, bluish highlights on the brow of the nose and the arch, and a bluish greenish shad eof highlights on the upper cheeks, so I got the urge to paint. But I stopped myself several times because maybe it was just the Holy Spirit moving inside of me, it's difficult for me to tell the difference until I put pen or brush to paper and my whole self goes “nah”.
But finally an image of this half finished painting came to mind as a low key not so energy consuming painting session, and I thought yeeeeaah that one I rage quit because it was so ugly so any small splatters of highlights to contour a face will be an upgrade.
And painting on it went so smoothly that another thought came to my mind, why don't everybody paint, painting is awesome, truly it is the highest of the visual arts. But then I looked over the sketch again and remembered that I began on this 6-8 if not more months ago, and I immediately quit in a fit of pure artistic rage and nearly suffocated myself in the following meltdown that nothing about those two heads looked anything like what I had in mind. Even though as usual, what I have in my mind is more of an emotion, a sort of vague feeling of “warmth, yellow, safe, sharp” rather than a clear picture of what the faces ought to look like.
And now that I got 2/3 done on the right head, I am pleased to do a 180 and just be happy that I got some painting done, and enjoy the fact that God and scripture comes first in my life. When you put God first, He has a way of freeing you from the tyranny of mundane things and put things in the right order in your life.
““Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Matthew 6:31-34
- EMH