I don’t know anyone who’s got a four-foot painting of their grandma’s face. The funny thing is, my hours in studio creating this piece probably don’t begin to approach the hours she logged in prayer on my behalf while she lived. Anyway, the studio time spent creating Grandma Alice felt like an extended visit with he —playing monopoly, watching Wheel of Fortune, feeding chickens. I could hear her in my head… saying with melody and approval in her voice,
“…wellhelloooooo, Maaaatt!”
Before I’d read of faithfulness in the Scriptures, I learned about it from my Grandma who never--until the months just preceding her death in 2009 during which time her silence was forced by weakness and wear--missed a birthday, a holiday, an occasion. All my life from Grandma… letters and prayers. I suppose one learns that kind of faithfulness by living on the farm. Either that, or farm life simply exposes one’s capacity to live faithfully. Not living faithfully on the farm probably makes for a short tenure as a farmer, as cows don’t milk themselves and chickens kept out at night turn to floaty feathers by morning.
In short, this painting is about convergence. It points to the ways in which the prayers of a dedicated woman have converged upon another’s life—mine—to shape and shift in faithfulness to the Spirit of God. So, with greens and grays and chickens and memories and hope… and hope, I say thank you to you, Grandma. I’m so glad our stories, by your prayers, still converge today.
Love and prayers always,
Matt
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12).
