Growing Together

Painting Description

As always you are free to interpret this piece however you choose or are led to understand it.

These are simply my own thoughts which I feel inspired to share.

My own interpretations change as I revisit with pieces as time goes on, but these are my initial thoughts at the time of creation.

One day when I was out skiing with my husband Sam, we fell down at the same time almost like we were connected.

Then I started thinking, I would like to do a painting about us falling together. Hum...snowflakes float & fall down, down, down; they also grow. The almost invisible intricate design, growing out from the center like crystals. Sam and I grow together…..What if we were IN the SNOWFLAKE!?!

And so, that’s where this idea came from. All the detailed designs in the background are little things you might find out in the forest growing. So small, easy to miss, like a snowflake. Growth is hard to see, it happens so slowly. You might think you are not growing, learning, or becoming stronger. I know I am always wanting to give up, thinking I’m the same old person, making the same ol’ mistakes. Yet, just like when the tiniest snowflakes pile up to make amazing Pow Turns, our growth, though barely noticeable, piles up to create a whole new being. A brand new you, a whole new me; a renewed spirit. Looking back further than yesterday, it’s much easier to see our growth and how far we’ve come.

There are many different ways to grow and often the hardest ways cause you to grow the most. I could go on and on for pages about how Sam has caused me to grow, through his encouragement, yes, but also through much of butting heads. Growing is hard, really hard. But there is little more fulfilling than when two people grow together.

It’s so easy to see how much the other has changed, it’s more difficult to see how we ourselves have changed. This should be an encouragement to us, that those looking in from the outside notice our growth and we should never be too hard on ourselves when we get impatient and think “I must not be growing at all”.

The type of growth seen in a relationship is endless and could be explored for a lifetime. The fulfillment and encouragement we find when in relationships with others is incomparable to anything else. This is why God chose the relationship, specifically a romantic one, to be the picture of his connection with us.

Take a look at these verses:  

“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

~Isaiah 62:5b

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes & cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. ”

~Ephesians 5:25, 28-29

When we look at our relationship with God from the perspective of this snowflake, we can see that it takes time to get to know God. To Grow your connection with God requires patience and hard work. You will not understand God upon first introduction, you won’t recognize his voice at first, it might seem like he is too far away. But as a relationship between a man and woman starts out so small, almost impossible to see, so you and God will start out with a very small spark, but you have no idea where that fire will take you!

Some other verses:

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of The Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.”

~Revelation 19:7

“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

~Revelation 21:2

“The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.”

~Proverbs 31:11