Sandi Hester

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4                 

“…so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.” I Kings 8:60

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” 1 Timothy 2:5                                                                          

“You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” James 2:19

This is the first painting for my systematic theology paper.  As you can see, I didn’t paint on my normal watercolor paper.  The way I’m symbolizing the 3 in 1 concept of the Trinity (there is one God in 3 Persons) is by painting each separate person (Father, Son, and Spirit) on a different size packing envelope – this is not the most ideal painting surface :).  I’ll be placing the Spirit (which will be the smallest envelope) inside the Son (the middle size envelope), and the Son will be placed inside the Father envelope.  So I’ll be able to hand-in “one” envelope/painting but there will be 3 envelopes and separate paintings.  I’ll explain this a little more as I describe each painting, but even the size and placement of the envelopes represent characteristics about that Person –  as you’ll see with the Father.  I love that the Lord gave me this idea – it really captures the purpose of this paper.

This is my first envelope/painting – the Father.  Each painting has scripture on it to describe that Person of the Trinity.  The scriptures I have in gold on the backdrop are all about how He is one God and there is no other – I was surprised to find how many there are!  Here are the scriptures in gold along with the ones at the top in bold that I placed in the background: Deut. 4:35, Is 45:5-6, Is 46:9, Jn 17:3, I Cor 8:4-6, Romans 3:30.

I am also placing names of each Person of the Trinity on their envelopes.  For the 1st person of the Trinity I painted: Father, Sovereign Lord, and Creator to capture who the Father is and what He does.  The painting of the earth and creation was meant to capture the role of the Father as Creator for He created and He sustains His creation.  I also placed torn scripture around on the painting that talk about His work in creation (Genesis 1:1-2, Job 26:7-14, Is 48:13).  The Father is the largest and main envelope because the Father is supreme in His position and authority among the Persons in the Trinity.  It’s amazing that there is such order in the Godhead – a built in structure of authority and submission.  In scripture we clearly see that the Son and Spirit are under the authority of the Father and they gladly submit to the Father – and yet, they are all God. 

On the back of each envelope I’m putting 2 hymns – one that captures that individual Person of the Godhead and a hymn about the Trinity (I painted the Trinity symbol on this hymn).  I hope you learn something new about the Trinity through this or at least are reminded of some sweet truths about our magnificent and mysterious God!

Well, once again the lack of posting has been due to my work on another paper for my systematic theology class.  This paper, however, has not been an ordinary paper –  I may have the coolest professor ever!  He decided for this last paper to let those of us who have a creative bent use that creativity for this 3rd essay.  The class has the option to write an essay (like normal), record a piece of music, paint, sculpt, or whatever else one can come up with to creatively explain the doctrine of the Trinity.  How much fun is that???  I jumped all over this!  The Lord gave me a creative way to express the Trinity for this project.  I’ll be painting 3 different paintings to capture each Person of the Trinity, but I’ll be combining them in a creative way to express the 3 in 1 concept of the Trinity.  I’ll be posting each painting as I complete them.  So you’ll get a little art and a little doctrine all at the same time :).  Below is a picture of Hannah (my niece) and me working hard on this essay (of course Hannah is just “play” painting).