walking wounded and light in darkness

These pieces, along with many others, are available at marymakesart.etsy.com in print form. I am excited to post them for you now! I've been working on a new series of art about light in the midst of darkness and am finishing the garments of praise series with wearable art. As you will read, these opportunities have been gifts through a very difficult time. Beauty from ashes. Mourning into dancing. A boy who is not paralized, but walking. Our hearts changing through turmoil. Months after my last blog, I am finally here again. Since the last post, my son, Jesse fractured his back and damages muscles and ligaments. We just returned from our last visit to Children's Hospital in Seattle. His fractures have healed and he is just beginning to be able to walk more! He is still very sore but healing well and we are so thankful it wasn't worse. I learned what it means to be caregiver again. Days of feeding him, helping him bathe, use the toilet, etc. It has been a good reminder to me of the need to encourage caregivers. Their help is vital to the healing of long term illness. I was thankful to have the help of family and the encouragement of friends along the way. I have no answers as to why our family has experienced so many health issues. But I'm okay with that. This time around we really got shaken. I was not sure how to handle this kind of stress...it affected our family in the worse way so far. I lost sight of God's comfort for a few weeks. I am excited to post the "Tranquil" painting/print as it means so much more to me now than when it was first created about 10 years ago. Again, I look at a piece of art and it serves as a visual reminder...when i pass it and look, even if only for a moment, I remember that peace in the midst of a storm is what having a relationship with Jesus is all about. I am reminded that through art, I hope we can share that kind of peace and promise to kids all over the world with long term illness. I am reminded that i can serve, even if i stumble around and grope in the dark for a while--I still belong to an unchangeable Creator. This journey continues. I really want to be living the peace that I've been shown. This is my latest portion of the journey.