Taking The Plunge

Hello Friends,

I have been looking at lots of beautiful bible art for many months now. I even joined a couple of groups and watched tutorials. But my heart always caught in my throat whenever I thought of painting in my bible. What if I destroyed it? What if I could no longer read the words?

I watched a daring bible art video by Rebekah R. Jones this morning. During the video she read from Psalm 27. I closed my eyes and let the words wash over me; that is my favourite Psalm. That is when I decided to take the plunge.

I started very timidly, applying dry eye shadow to one verse. Yeah, that didn't do much. So I got out my chalk pastels, a little jar of water and some make-up sponges. I used a Praise Him stencil and pink pastel on a damp sponge. I really liked how that looked and it didn't bleed through the page, as I had feared.

So I used the mask and sponged yellow pastel on the remainder of the page. I like the white halo that is left around the image.

Next I wrote "To Gaze upon You" at the bottom of the page with a pink glitter pen. I figured if that bled through it was not such a big deal since it was at the bottom. It didn't. :)

Next I wrote along the side of the page and added some flowers in the corners, all with glitter pens. I had to set these with hair spray and a dryer because the glitter ink stays wet for a long time.

I was really getting into this now. I stenciled at the top of the page with more pink pastel and even stamped onto the page with it. The stamping was as bold as I got but the words are still relatively easy to read. In fact, a blue highlighter that I used once on the other side of this page bled through, but nothing I did today does. I want to get some clear Gesso to protect my pages in future.

I often connect with God through my art and I often use bible verses in my art, but painting over the actual scriptures brought this experience to a whole new level. The words seemed to dance from the page to my heart and back again. I felt I was given new eyes, fresh sight, and renewed passion for the Word of God.

I spent a long time dipping my toes in and backing away, but I am certainly glad I took the plunge into bible art journaling. I can hardly wait to do it again.

How do you connect with God? Do even you know that you can? He wants a relationship with you and he made the way for that to happen through his son Jesus. Maybe you are still dipping your toes in and backing away from having a personal encounter with Jesus. That is okay. Wherever you are at in your faith journey, the Lord wants you to know that you are beautiful; so very beautiful; and you are loved with an everlasting love.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Challenges:
Bible Art Journaling challenge - Psalm 27 (Week 27)