Summer paintings and promises
Cannonball 2022, Kate Norris, 8”x8” acrylic on paper
I wanted to share the small paintings I did over the summer. Our girls have always said that “Heaven will be a pool party.” That may not be your vision of perfect joy and peace but it’s theirs ;) So I started with “Heaven is a pool party…”
Pencil-Dive, 2022, Kate Norris, 8”x8” acrylic on paper
Then I began to celebrate the children and families who gathered to play and have a summer Bible study with us.
Freestyle, 2022, Kate Norris, 8”x8” acrylic on paper
Then Sean went on his trip to Uganda with Bp. Williams and a New England team. They texted me pictures of the long, bumpy, rural roads of Uganda. Everywhere they went they met people who needed to know the Lord loves them, welcomes them, and saves them from their secret shame. We all desperately need the same promise. We bank on heaven. And. We need redemption now. The same was true for the people I was hosting in Cutchogue, as well as our new friends in Long Island and Uganda, our old friends everywhere else—we all need Jesus’ redemption. Isaiah saw it as refreshing waters in a desert land… a pool if you will ;)
“He will come and save you…
For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
The burning sand shall become a pool,
And the thirsty ground springs of water” (Isaiah 31:4,7).
Isaiah 35, Kate Norris, 8”x8” acrylic on paper
This summer I felt my own loneliness, even as new friends began to form. I was surprised by the force of it. I have good support long distance, but I longed for close friends, nearby, in my world. I longed for teammates. It came on so strong I could almost taste it. This is part of the flip side of “feeling.” Real joy and real agony too. Perhaps this is a taste of his promise for a “heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone?” It’s a bit scary to realize you really want something, need it even, and then wait on the Lord to provide it. A bumpy road, for sure. I needed to paint this as I waited and prayed for others who felt lonely in their work, life, or ministry. Everywhere we went this summer, we met them.
In the waiting, God gave me these gifts…
As Sean was away for two weeks, God did provide a friend: the Bishop’s wife, Elena. We prayed every day at noon for the team, the trip, the diocese. She was a friend in the Lord, an intercessor, a prayer warrior, a wife, a mom—a gift. In addition, Sean was able to call home every day, even if just a short update. A friend nearby took the girls for an afternoon so I could rest. Sean’s family was a nearby support. I felt so connected. I did not expect to.
I am used to numbing out or to taking big needs like this into my own hands. It comes oh so naturally. Yet there’s a God who is for the orphan in Nebbi, Uganda, for the working young parent, for the lonely, for the weary, for the scared, for me, for you. He is for us in our valley of trouble. And instead of turning to anything else, he made me paint his promise. I hope he keeps doing that.
“As they go through the Valley of Baca (trouble)
They make it a place of springs;
The early rain covers it with pools” (Psalm 84:6).
He knows our valley of trouble; it’s what he redeems.
The Valley of Trouble becomes a place of pools Psalm 84:5-7
Kate Norris, 8”x8” acrylic on paper
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