Sandi Hester

You will go out in joy and be lead forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.   Isaiah 55:12 

Who knew that mountains could sing and trees even had hands to clap?  Who are they singing to and who are they clapping for?  Their Creator, that’s who.  They are in constant praise of their Maker.  I’m looking out my breakfast room window right now and my backyard is full of trees – they all stand with arms raised high praising their Creator.  When the wind blows through them, you can see them “clapping their hands”.  What will you do with your voice and hands today?  Will you praise the One who not only made you, but died for you and bought you at a very high price?  Or will the rocks cry out in your place?

This is a painting I did very early on in my painting “career” (if you can call it that).  It was actually a mistake – a mess up (I have  a LOT of those).  I painted this tree and hated it, so I practiced writing the scripture on the page that inspired me to paint the tree and I hated my writing even more than the tree.  I wanted to tear it up and throw it in the trash – but instead, I put it away.  Months later I pulled it out and LOVED it!  What changed???  I’m still not sure, but that happens all the time to me.  I paint something and hate it, and then I’ll look at it later and want to frame it.  It’s really weird how that works.  I do love this verse – may it stir your heart toward your Maker today – praise Him for He is more than worthy to be praised!

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.  “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  Isaiah 1:18

Here are a couple of pictures I painted of some trees (I can’t remember the name of them – that’s not surprising since some days I can’t remember my own name) while on a ski trip in Deer Valley, Utah.  Grady will be impressed that I remembered what state we were in (Grady, I actually cheated and looked it up – I was actually going to put Deer Valley, Colorado 🙂 ).  I thought since it’s been so hot out I would give you a picture and scripture that would send cold thoughts your way.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  Romans 8:22-23

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!  For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.  Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear.  Revelation 19:7-8

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.  Isaiah 48:10

This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.  They will call on My name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’  Zechariah 13:9 

I have to say before I begin this post that I’m wondering if this painting, along with the poem that inspired it, is going to make sense to anyone else but me.  I usually run my art by Grady, because sometimes other people don’t get what I was trying to do with a painting – this could be one of those 🙂 – we’ll see.

I have a poem in the back of my bible that I recently came across that touched me (as it does every time I read it) and inspired me.  The poem makes me think of Moses and the burning bush.  Exodus 3:3 says, “Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up”.  So here’s, my vision of the burning bush and the poem that inspired this painting…

“Your holy Fire now burns within and purges every secret sin; my life the bush, Your life the Flame that leaves me nevermore the same.  A heart like Yours, my one desire; do Your work, Refiner’s Fire.”  ~Jennifer Kennedy Dean

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.  Proverbs 12:10

I have a feeling my friends Robyn and Bev are going to like this one!  This is the first drawing I did a year ago when I picked the pencil up to draw (and then later to paint) for the first time since I was young.  It’s not the best drawing in the world, but I was pleasantly surprise to see that creative talent was still in me.  The drawing is of our four legged furry “child” Molly. 

I love the photo of her even though she’s having a seriously bad hair day (yes, dogs have bad hair days too – Molly has lots of them!).  If you look close you can see something orange on her nose – that’s a Doritos crumb.  We really should have named her Bissell, because she’s like a small vacuum cleaner always at work – she really comes in handy around dinner time.  Some of you thought I was a really good house keeper – now you know my secret.

My breath is offensive to my wife…  Job 19:17

You have to be familiar with the book of Job to understand the context of this verse.  It’s one that cracks me up on one hand and pulls my heart strings on the other.  Out of all the things Job has to worry about, he is concerned about his bad breath and how offensive it is to his wife!  Man alive my God has a sense of humor – out of all the things recorded in the bible – God chose to let us know that Job worried over his bad breath.  On the other hand we see, through the precious words of scripture, a man who deeply loves his wife and desperately wants her close by his side during this hard time in his life.  It concerns him that he not only has sores covering his body, but to top it off, his breath may keep her further away.  What a sweet tender man.

While we are on the topic of Job, I cannot pass up this opportunity to share this great thought from Phillip Yancey’s book ‘The Bible Jesus Read’.  I have this quote of his written in my bible by Job 13:15, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.”  Phillip Yancey says this, “Do we have the freedom and ability to believe God for no other reason than, well… for no reason at all?  Can a person believe even when God appears to him as an enemy?  Job prefers to live with the agonizing paradox, that God still loves him even though all evidence points against it.”

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!  For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.  Revelation 19:7

I love this verse!  What a wonderful picture of my Jesus – coming for His Bride who has “made herself ready”.   She will be prepared for her Groom when He comes.  She will know His voice, she will know His ways, she will know His likes and dislikes – how?  Because she will have spent countless hours with Him.  She will have read and reread His love letters to her (which is His Word).  Her heart will leap with desire over the things that makes His heart leap, and her heart will break over the things that break His heart.  She longs to see Him face to face!

I love painting old churches – I love what they represent – the Bride.  I’ll post more of them over the next couple of weeks.

See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.  Rev 5:5

Here’s a sketch of my salt and pepper shakers.  Grady gave me these beautiful dishes several years ago and I LOVE them.  Each set (a set includes a dinner plate, bowl, etc.) has a different theme and scriptures to go with that theme on the dishes.  Some of the themes are: family (so the dishes in that set has scripture to do with family), prayer, salvation, faith, praise, love, God’s promises, wisdom, etc.  The pepper shaker says, “Season your words! Colossians 4:6a” and the salt shaker says, “Salt your offerings! Leviticus 2:13b”.