Beginning Idea- This was colored by Marie in 04)
I was in the hospital when I began sketching out the flower and there was this elderly woman. She was beautiful but weak and fragile. Everyday she would watch me color and paint and she would always comment that they were so beautiful. She always said that she wish she could do that. I would ask her each day, “Would you like to color?” She always responded with, “NO that’s for children!” Our relationship grew throughout the week I was there. She would quote scripture to me and have me look it up and read it for her because at times she couldn’t remember it all. She was around 80 or so. I saw this woman come alive more and more every day. At first she was resistant to anyone’s touch and anyone’s help and I too was as well. She wouldn’t eat at all and the nurses would just leave her alone. She was growing weaker and her color just fading away. God drew me to her. I began to talk to her and LISTEN to her. As she began to trust me she let me help her. I cut her food for her and opened the containers for her as she desperately tried to put the spoon in the soup. She would cry because she was loosing her independence. She couldn’t even do the basics of feeding herself because her poor body and hands just shook so much. God spoke to me so much then, that now I can see the meaning behind it. He showed me through this woman that I am his child and that I am dependent on Him. My whole life I was doing all I could do to be independent. 1 John 3:1 – “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.")At the time I was struggling and extremely depressed and my relationship with God was fairly new. The words that came from her I know were coming from God. It was the night before I was leaving and I was doing my usual routine, coloring and painting. She looked at me and told me how beautiful I was and talented and that God has plans for me. I asked her again, “Marie would you like to color with me?” This time she said yes. I drew the flower and she chose her colors. Her hands were barely able to hold the crayon. She began to cry and weep. I said, “Marie, what is wrong?” She replied, “I can’t see it. I CAN’T SEE IT.” Right there I knew God was very real. My struggle from the beginning was “but I can’t see Him.” How can I trust if I can’t see him? (2 Corinthians 5:7 – “We live by faith not by sight.”)Right then I knew I needed him. She couldn’t eat because she is blind. She couldn’t see to color because she is blind, almost to the point of total blindness. I hugged her and said don’t worry Marie I can make it darker. (“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” Isaiah 42:16) So I went over it with thick black sharpie. She colored it but struggled because she kept going out of the lines. She kept saying over and over, “I can’t do this. It doesn’t look good!” I loved the fact that I was able to speak those words she spoke to me everyday, "It is beautiful. You are beautiful Marie!” The next day, I checked out and as I walked out her daughter was there. Something we had prayed about because Marie mentioned that she didn’t have support. Her daughter came up to me and shook my hand and said," Thank you so much for helping my mom. We never thought we would see her smile again. (Come to find out she was in the hospital because she tried to end her life). I looked at her and said, "It wasn't me but Christ. God gets all the glory. Your mom has touched my heart and her love for Christ truly has impacted my life." God is such an amazing Savior, not only did he give hope and life in an 80 year old he too brought life back in me at 19. He touched two lives at once by bringing to strangers together who were in need of His resurrection. He works his purposes like the way he said he would. It was the hardest goodbye. I am constantly thinking about this little old woman who taught me so much of her wisdom in such a short time.
God is such an amazing God for all that he taught me the two months I was there and the amazing thing is I am still learning so much from it now that it has been almost 4 years.
(These mosaic crosses were inspired by God and a beautiful elderly lady, Marie.)
I don’t know why I felt like sharing this, I just feel drawn to. I never have told anyone about the meaning behind it. Here is a picture attached of Marie’s artwork. I still have it till this day and can't hold the tears back when I look at it.
May you all be blessed!
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." Eph. 3:20
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