Often, we can’t even imagine what God might do.
A recent development has sure left me like a deer in the
headlights.
I sat at my desk a cold winter
eight years ago hammering out the script for Give My Love to the Chestnut Trees which would also become a novel.
In addition to the main character, a young teenage girl, Mary Helen,
I imagined her mentor, an eccentric artist, Aunt Laney, who painted large
canvases of marsh scenes.
To my utter surprise, that novel and script went on to win
several awards and was optioned for a movie. A year ago, I thought we had the green
light for production and went into something of a panic, because sadly, the
woman we thought might do the paintings for the movie developed serious health
problems and had to step out of the project.
Though I was an art
major and had imagined all these paintings, I felt wholly inadequate to produce
them myself. I’d only done small watercolors since college, and these paintings
should be oil. And they should be big. But I needed to make sure the paintings fit the concept I’d
hoped for and with an independent film production, the budget would be limited
to hire someone else to do them. Oh, my.
Could I really create these paintings? I had serious doubts, but just like many
years before when I wondered whether I could be a writer, I heard God say,
“Just start.” So I did. As I was making some progress, I learned the movie
project had been put on hold. Again.
Seriously. What was this all about?
I wanted to quit with the painting. Why should I continue?
But somehow with God’s help, I kept going and produced about a dozen paintings
over the course of the year―marsh related scenes and other subjects, often painting with a heavy heart because of
my dad’s illness and death.
Well guess what? I learned last week, the painting from my
book was chosen for the exhibit― an underwater scene of a blue crab. Crazy,
right? It started as a thing imagined for a story, but now, just like the
paintings of the fictional Aunt Laney, it’s going to be hanging in a gallery
for the entire month of March.
Please don’t hear me bragging. When I wrote the story, I never, ever thought anything like this would happen. This whole business
brings tears to my eyes because it is clearly an example of "Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”(Ephesians 3:20).
And He for sure has. And is. And will.
So, whatever thing God has planted in your heart, just keep
at it.
Don’t give up.
With God’s help you can do what you never thought possible.
I’ll try to share
links to the exhibit when they become available.