Transformation not restoration

I review books as one of my hobbies,

the most recent book to arrive in the mailbox has been

a treat.

What grabbed my heart last night,

pg 30 of "My own worst Enemy"

how to stop holding yourself back by Janet Davis.

"In his book Becoming Human, Brian Taylor describes

how often we want restoration rather than transformation.

We want God to simply tweak our lives, make us into a new and improved

version of the woman we already know,nothing too dramatic.

Yet we serve a God who is all about transformation:

turning caterpillars into butterflies,

making the new pretty unrecognizable to the old.

God tells us not to stop in the plains,

but go all the way to the mountains,

the land of the unknown."

Remember the Story of Lots wife?

that is what she references here......

"we are not called to settle for simply living a good life, we are called to shine.

The real irony for us as Christians is that this kind of leap into the unknown

is the very nature of the life of faith we are called to live as our NORM.

Faith moves us to that which we cannot see.

She mistook her past for her Life.

"Remember Lots wife! WHoever ties to keep their life will lose it,

and whoever loses their life will preserve it. (Luke 17:32-33)

I found this reading to be so applicable to where I am right now.

You can read that I was rummaging through boxes of artwork yesterday.

If we care called to shine.

How can this gift,

this talent,

this blessing be used

if its in a box? Portfolio??

remember as little kids singing,

"This little light of mine,

Im gonna let it shine......

Hide it under a bush?

Oh NO!!!

Im gonna let it shine."

I found a painting that I really really disliked,

and thought,I surely cant ruin it.

Im gonna put some different color in it and see if its fixable.

So I started playing in paint.

By the time I sat back and took a new look.

it took my breath away.

I had mentioned to my daughter

that parts made me think of some images Id seen of outer space

then you add the butterfly

in brilliant white contrast

with an image- barely visible

of a realisitic butterfly.

The word transformation came to mind,

how wed lost a dear friend this week to ALS,

how hospice uses a butterfly to convey their message,

and how we believe when we die

we are instantly swept up to heaven

our souls are gone.

Leaving behind the shell of the earthly body we no longer need.

This painting will be called,

"Going home."

(mixed media- ink pouring, acrylic, watercolor)

I remain,

Under His wings,

Anna

Linking up today : Studio JRU

Paint party Friday