Many are the plans in a man’s (or woman’s) heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

This verse sums up my life in a nutshell…maybe that’s why I quote it often. Case in point; I had planned topics for the entire Lenten season and thought I was being very proactive. But a few days ago I awoke from a dream completely overcome by the subliminal suggestion that I needed to write about my pen and ink artwork. Then I thought, no, it was just a dream. But it just kept nagging at me. And then, on Sunday morning, Pastor Dennis spoke passionately about our children being robbed of their Christian identity by societal distractions and I began to see how pen and ink could reveal a parallel.

So let’s embark on a little artistic tutorial. There’s a bit of preliminary work before I begin a new piece. Not the least difficult is making a choice of subject matter. Once that’s accomplished, I may need to engage my printer to reduce or enlarge a photo or other picture of the image I’ve chosen to work with. When I’ve determined what weight and texture I want for a drawing surface, I’ll use a black and white copy of the photo, with a bright light underneath, to lightly trace in pencil the outline of the major components onto my drawing paper.

Now comes the most important aspect of the work. Read this twice. Before the pen touches the paper I must sketch in the voids. This is free-handed, again in pencil. The voids are those spaces where I want no ink and clearly, if I neglect to indicate where they are needed and try to wing it with my pen, I’m going to make a mistake. Once the ink is down, there is no going back, only a do-over.

When I’ve identified all those spaces, only then, can I proceed to add the details around them in ink. Those early strokes and dots and crosshatches look hopelessly incomplete and I often wonder if the finished piece will ever resemble the image I saw in my mind’s eye before I began. Slowly, very slowly, the image takes form.

By faith—by believing God—we know that the world and the stars—in fact, all things—were made at God’s command; and that they were all made from things that can’t be seen. Hebrews 11:3

Human life is much like these drawings. A baby is born without skills or knowledge, completely dependent on others to fill its needs. The bodily organs function but the mind and the soul are yet to be developed, an open canvas or blank sheet of paper, a void so to speak. They can’t be seen as body parts on an X-ray yet they exist, ready to be molded by the environment in which the child is surrounded. He or she soon learns how to communicate wants and needs. Before we know it, our child is moving around on its own power and soon words tumble from its mouth. Now the question is, what kind of words will we hear? If the child is exposed to polite language and love, the words spilling out are likely to be similar. But if the child is surrounded by unclean words and anger, we know what will happen. “Little pitchers have big ears” may be just an old grandma idiom, but it rings true. Children repeat what they hear. What is your child’s void being filled with? 

Now then, as adults, we also tend to reflect the sights and sounds with which we surround ourselves. If we have allowed the negatives to invade our “void”, we are likely to reek with negativity but if we put on the God armor that deflects those negatives and only allows positive attitudes, we then can reflect His light wherever we go. That “void” becomes so bright with light that we can only reflect goodness.

And that drawing I began? The more positive pen strokes that I add, the more clearly the intended image is revealed. I like to take a number of photos during the progression of my work. The reflection of the work in progress helps me see where corrections need to be made, where more shading is needed, and where the project needs to be left blank. And when I’m finished, the voids become the focal points. They’re intended to project light, perhaps the sun glistening on a shiny surface or the highlights in the coat of a wild creature. The light emanates from the voids adding an aura of brightness.

So you see, there is a parallel. Just as it’s important for me to surround my pen and ink voids with the right details, so must we give thoughtful contemplation to what we absorb from the details surrounding the personal “voids” of our minds and souls. Don’t lay the ink on the paper until you’ve determined where and how the voids will collect light to shine forth and illuminate the dark places in the world with God’s goodness.

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.

The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! II Corinthians 5:17-18