Creative Tuesdays – Under the Leaves

Creative Tuesdays – Under the Leaves

Under-the-Leaves

I hope you have patience to work through with me as I was given this prompt of “Under the Leaves”.

I will admit when I first read “Under the Leaves” as a prompt for Creative Tuesdays,  I thought of the bunnies that our little dog, Snowball, chases every time we go for a walk. I thought of the shade in the summer when we sit under our tree.

But then I thought of the leaves of a book.

 

So I thought I would talk about the pages of the Bible. It was to be “Under the leaves of the Bible”. I have joined an online Internet radio station and am a contributor once a week. The station is called HopeStreamRadio.com. I hope you check it out. My friends, Ron Hughes, Stephanie Nickel and Kimberley Payne are all involved. My talk is called Growing Through God’s Word. My program runs on Tuesdays. Each week I talk about how God teaches me through His Word.

I didn’t always feel that way. The Bible was just a book on my shelf, seldom opened and needed dusting. I might open it to check out a crossword puzzle solution or answer a question if it came up in discussion. One time when I was very sick I read the Psalms. That worked very well. But studying the Bible – No.

What have I found under those leaves?

 

Here are just some of the things I have found:

  • wisdom
  • insight
  • passion
  • people
  • peace
  • release from fear
  • guidance,
  • history
  • life changes
  • conviction
  • truth
  • eternal life through Jesus

Under those leaves lives a pattern for life with God’s Holy Words ever true. It reminds me of the song Ancient Words.

Here is the YouTube video of Robin Mark singing this song.

Ancient words
Ever true
Changing me
Changing you.

 

Here is another video for my Canadian family sung by Michael W. Smith.

When I hold the Bible I hold God’s history and God’s people in my hands – a sacred, mighty, powerful book.

Have you looked under the leaves of the Bible?

As I said, I started to look at the leaves of the Bible – then I wondered if there were God’s words about “leaves” in the Bible. There were!!

Revelation 22:2 says:

and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

I found a most interesting post written in 1855 by Milo Mahan, entitled The Leaves of the Tree are for the Healing of the Nations. It is not an easy read and I want to go back and really read more deeply into his message.

Here is what I found interesting:

 Each generation has its own work … to do, its own trials to meet, its own resources to develope [sic], its own account to give to the Judge and Maker of us all. ….

The Tree of Life was designed to be a shelter against all evils. Its leaves are specifics for national disease.

If you check back to a post a wrote on deceivers it looks as though this writing was a prophetic message – each generation has a work to do. So my prayer is that we pray for God to show us how to do it.

So that is my round-about mental process of figuring out “Under the Leaves”.

Thank you so much for Michael at Creative Tuesdays for giving us this creative exercise. I am not that happy with the watercolour I did – but I didn’t copy anything – just drew as I felt led.

The exercise has been meaningful to me – knowing that the Tree of Life is covering me through trials, despair, joy and inspiration. All those leaves from ancient days until now, are they the saints before us and around us?

Blessings,
Janis

Tweetable:

I join Creative Tuesdays, “Under the Leaves” @dotti_hill.  (click to tweet)

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

18 comments

  1. Janis, I enjoyed the blend of art, nature, and Scripture in your post. It was a need for my own personal healing that caused me to take shelter within the leaves of His Word.

    Blessings ~ Wendy ❀

  2. This is a beautiful and peaceful drawing, and I love the flow of the watercolors you used. The leaves blend really softly into the background drawing, and the book is almost ethereal. Great job!

  3. Dear Janis,
    What a lovely and inspirational post, and watercolor too! The truth and wisdom in God’s Word truly are all we need — but then there is prophecy, poetry, history, adventure, love story, family drama, and so much more. May we live under and within its leaves and find healing, inspiration, guidance, encouragement and comfort there.
    God bless,
    Laurie

  4. Janis, I’m glad you were inspired by such a theme! “Brucko” is an autobiography that you may have heard about one teenager’s amazing adventure in South America with a cut off tribe that had a century old prophecy/vision about some strange ghostly skinned person coming to them and opening up what they saw as bananas unfolding to speak universal Truth about the unknown creator they believed was out there. The elder chief realised that this prophecy was fulfilled in Brucko when he opened up his big black book–his NT! It’s an amazing read.

    Funny though how it speaks to some like that so clearly yet also is interpreted so many different ways, each group claiming to have the right interpretation and thus the need for humility instead of constant divisions. Everyone is different I suppose, and sees/interprets things differently even in the face of such “truth” as it were.

    Thank you for taking the time to do this and adding your contribution to our little co-op. Hope you have a great week.

    1. Michael,
      I don’t know how God does it – but He just seems to lead me in the way of His Word.
      That sounds like a fascinating story and I will look it up.

      Disagreements is why we have to go back to the Bible – the context, what came before and after, and the cultural times as well. We can’t pick and choose just to make our point. I am learning more and more about this.
      Sometimes I hesitate to write something but I pray for revelation and He is faithful to show me the way.

      I love your challenges. And it makes me paint as well.

      Blessings,
      Janis

  5. It’s great when posts have a mind of their own, but yours I could tell was inspired from above. I did get your video link, some family emergency stuff has come up so I haven’t had time to listen to it but I certainly will.

  6. Oh Janis, I did have the patience to read your inspiring words and to gaze at your tree and the “leaves of God’s book”. So clearly inspired by God. You have a gift, my friend. I clicked on the video, but it said, “this video is not available in your country”. Hee hee, I’m only in Canada.

    1. Tracy,
      Thanks so much for the encouragement. I didn’t mean to make the post this long – It just seemed to write itself. I did add another video which you should be able to get in Canada.
      Blessings,
      Janis

I love to connect with you.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d