Tag: Leo Boucher

I’m happy to share this wonderful painting by my dad that I recently featured in my monthly newsletter. I love the movement and color as I imagine the trees clapping their hands, all worshiping God together, even as they prepare to hibernate for the winter. We all need times of rest and repair, moments to hunker down and be still.

Why not take a few moments to ponder this passage of Scripture and take in the beauty of the painting or something beautiful around you?

He took one of the seedlings of the land and put it in fertile soil. He planted it like a willow by abundant water, and it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out leafy boughs. Ezekiel 17:5–6

We’ve enjoyed some beautiful sunsets and sunrises lately, which this wonderful painting of my dad’s evokes in my mind. This scene makes me think of visiting the farms of my relatives from both sides in the Midwest. I appreciated the wide-open spaces, the cats running around the barn, the rows of corn ready to be detassled and harvested.

Why not pray for farmers today, and all who work the land? You could meditate on this passage from Deuteronomy 28 (NIV) as you do so (see especially verses 8 and 11):

¹ If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. ² All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

⁵ Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

⁶ You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

⁷ The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

⁸ The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

⁹ The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. ¹⁰ Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. ¹¹ The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

¹² The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. ¹³ The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

My daughter loves autumn. She doesn’t enjoy heat and doesn’t love the beach like I do, so for her, the changing leaves don’t instill in her a sense of dread. I used to love fall with the gorgeous colors especially in the upper Midwest in the States, but now autumn for me means shorter and shorter days and the bone-chilling cold that the damp atmosphere of England can bring.

What does this season mean to you? How could you offer all of your feelings about it to God? Perhaps today you might want to take a walk, taking in the sights and sounds around you, asking God to reveal himself to you as you do. What might he be welcoming you to relinquish in this season?

For my friends in the Southern hemisphere, what things might God be awakening in you as you enter Spring?

You could also take some time to pray with this lovely painting by my dad. Let your eye move around it, asking God to lead you in prayer. You might want to ponder a passage of Scripture as you do so, such as one of these:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:33–34, NIV).

In [God’s] hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10, NIV).

Join me for a few moments of prayerful contemplation of this painting of my father’s – you could take a walk in the woods through your imagination. As you do so, you might want to consider this passage from Mark’s gospel:

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

Mark 6:30–32 (NIV)

Of course, the story continues and the disciples and Jesus don’t get their rest because Jesus has compassion on the crowds, feeding them miraculously with five loaves and two fish (you can read the whole story here). How do you think Jesus’ friends felt when they didn’t get to go off for their rest? Might their perspective have shifted when they took part in the miracle?

Through your imagination, take a walk in the woods with Jesus. Notice him next to you – what’s he doing? What’s his expression? Might he have something to say to you?

How might this painting lead you into prayer?

Spend a few moments looking at it, lingering where your eye lands, asking God to speak to you. You might want to consider a section of Scripture as you do so. I immediately thought of Peter walking on the water to meet Jesus (see Matthew 14:22–36), but actually one that fits better for me is that of the disciples, bereft of Jesus after his death, going fishing (John 21). They are looking for fish, but really they are searching for Jesus:

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

(John 21:1–14, NIV)

I love this painting of my dad’s – it’s one where he paints on the back side of glass, so he has to create everything in reverse. I didn’t get a great photo of it, as you can see the reflection above the two women, but the photo gives you an idea of the picture.

What I especially love about this painting is how my dad captured the three sitting at the table on the left. I recognize them as my mom and Jan and Tom, who are a very close couple to my parents’ (they were part of our great neighborhood group when I was growing up). My dad really captured the pose of my mom in particular – that’s so her! She’s at rest but also probably pondering something. I’d love to know what she was thinking at that moment.

What strikes me in this painting is how artists can capture a slice of the ‘real’ in their art, even as writers labor to convey a thought or feeling in their words and sculptors similarly through the medium of clay (and video producers and graphic designers and so on).

What’s the ‘real’ in you that maybe only God sees? Or that you reveal to a select few? What might an artist capture in your pose today?

I invite you to spend some moments pondering and praying. You could ask God to show you how he would paint you or make a sculpture of you or a movie of you.

The first thoughts I had when I saw this painting were that God holds us. We enter a boat and the water keeps us afloat – the image I have is of God’s everlasting arm underneath us, supporting us through not only trials and tribulations but through the joyous times of hope and celebration. (See Deuteronomy 33:27).

And then I looked at the painting again and what captured my attention was the posture of the three figures in the boat. They seem to be searching for something – a path through the fog? Something or someone in the distance, on shore? For sustenance through spotting a fish below? In which case the Scripture text that comes to me is Jeremiah 29:13 about seeking and finding God.

Of course, a combination of the two reflects beautifully on our life with God. We seek and find him and he supports us, holding us while we do so.

Why not take some time to pray through these Scriptures, using the painting as a prompt to pray? I’d love to hear how God leads you through this exercise.

The passage from Deuteronomy 33:27 follows. It forms part of God’s blessing for the tribe of Asher, as he blesses the twelve tribes before the enter the promised land:

The eternal God is your refuge,
    and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Here’s the passage from Jeremiah 29. And yes, this includes the often-quoted verse about God’s plans for us. Note that he makes the promise to those who are in captivity, banished there because of their wrongdoing. God rescues them from the consequences of their sin:

¹⁰ This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”