I painted the image below live during a church service. I had spent nearly a week planning this one out and wasn't sure exactly why I was to paint an eyeball, but I was clear that I was to paint an eyeball. I find this often happens with works of art that are created in partnership with God. Sometimes He nudges me to do something that makes no sense to me and it may not even be for me to ever know why. My job is to be obedient and carry out that vision with confidence. This piece is a perfect example of what God can do with just a little obedience to His voice.
Less than 30 minutes before the service started someone asked me what I was painting and I told them "an eyeball." The person chuckled. I can understand why because, without any context, painting an eyeball seems a bit odd. As a child I was called odd by some of the people who should have been building me up so being thought of as "odd" as an adult still carries a sting. However, I was sure that I needed to paint an eye. It's an incredible confidence booster to have people laugh at your ideas when they are inspired by the King of the universe. Just as Noah. When God gave Noah the plans to build The Ark he started carrying out the plans. It took him around 120 years to complete it. People made fun of him and didn't understand what he was building. From what I can tell there were no rivers or rainfall until after the great flood. Spending 120 years building a boat when Noah didn't live near a body of water looked foolish, but it was a gigantic act of obedience.
I knew the image I was creating was going to be an enlarged eye that would be looking up. I wanted to add in some details like the reflected light just under the upper lid. I've shared before that I have a process when I'm painting live where I think through the entire painting before I paint one stroke. I did that with this one too and knew it was going to look pretty cool when it was finished, so I carried on with the work I had set out to create even though the chuckle made me question if I acting out of obedience or foolishness.
What I didn't anticipate is that a woman would come up to me after the service was over to tell me that she walked in late and saw me painting an eye and knew it was the Lord communicating to her. Things then got really interesting really fast. She told me she had been having a serious issue with her eyes for an extended period of time. In fact, she was scheduled to have a medical procedure to help correct whatever was going on a few days later. She walked in, saw me painting an eye, knew it was God's way of speaking to her AND COMPLETELY HEALED HER! These aren't my words, but hers. She went to the doctor for her scheduled appointment and when the doctor examined her he found that everything was normal.
This is one of the last paintings I did during a church service before the COVID pandemic hit in March, 2020. I saw the woman again in the spring of 2021 (nearly a full year later) and asked if she would tell me the story about the her eyes because I thought I was remembering it wrong. She told it me just as I've written it down here.
I share all of this to encourage you to actively seek to listen to God's voice and then be obedient to what the answer is. The God who created everything wants to shower us with His blessings. The blessings He gives us aren't just for us but for those around us. Share what you have today. Let light shine through you.
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