Tom Bean, Texas - December
1943
This picture is not a true likeness of
any particular spot in Texas. It is a grouping of your native trees
around any calm stream in your state in the late spring, when the
bluebonnets are in bloom.
In the sunset of the picture is painted
the symbol of the gospel and in the stream, trees, path and sheep are
the evidence of Gods creation. His love and providential care.
Its purpose is not to distract from the
gospel preached by word from the pulpit but to supplement it, as a
background that the eye see God through the things of his creation.
For in him were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible.
It is my sincere prayer in reproducing
nature upon this canvas that as you look from week to week upon the
results of this effort now before you, you are caused to look through
"nature up to natures God". If under its influence you are
made to appreciate the work of the Creator keenly and to study nature
as the countenance of God. If in a word you can discern more clearly
the "heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth
his handy work, its purpose will have been accomplished.
God put in the wilderness – "the
trees – that we might see and know and understand together that
the hand of Jehovah hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath
created it." Isaiah 41:20
God reveals himself in two books, the
book of Inspiration and the book of Nature, they supplement each
other in writing upon the human heart the understanding of the ways,
the thoughts, the will, the love, the power of the Majestic beauty of
God Almighty.
Oh that we might have the soul of the
psalmist to sing songs of praise and exaltation to our God, when we
behold the majestic beauty of a sunset, and looking beyond its glory
and brightness of the sun and see our God as a "Sun and a
shield" and that the glorious display of the heavens are
declaring the glory of God.
The sweetest Singer of Israel said that
and more. He saw the darkness enfold the earth as a mantle when the
last rosy tint faded and the stars came forth one by one until the
whole of heaven was a myriad of stars. He recalled the creation, and
said, "the firmament showeth the handwork of God". The
darkness fades as the sun like a "bridegroom coming out of his
chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run his course", rises
above the horizon and its shafts of light come between the trees to
light the path and make a halo around every sheep. The sheep which
are the sheep of God's pasture. David the shepherd boy said, looking
on the path now a ribbon of light. God's word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path. It became unto him "the path of
justice" – and "a path of righteousness" – a path
upon which he must ponder that he might not cause that which is lame
to stumble" – as they trod the path of life which leads to the
"highway of Zion" – "The way of Holiness," the
way the unclean shall not pass over, but it shall be for the
redeemed.
Does not the sheep and the path of the
picture cause you to think of "The Lord is my Sheppard I
shell not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He
leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. He quideth me
is the paths of righteousness for his names sake." Ps
23:1-3
God brought Israel a vine out of Egypt.
He drove out the nations before them, and planted it in a place large
enough that it took deep root and filled the land. The mountain was
covered with the shadow of it and the boughs there of were like
cedars of God, but Israel became as the haughty cedar and the proud
oak. They were no longer trees that God delighted in (Here the trees
are a figure of God's people Israel) he would bring them low as an
oak the once green and beautiful it should become as an oak whose
leaves fadeth. I have the oak painted with young and tender leaves
filled with sap and drinking of the stream at it's roots. We can
visualize it as it would be in a few weeks full leafed and beautiful
as a child of God a tree of righteousness drinking deeply of "the
stream of life" that "living water" stream which Jesus
told the Samaritan woman, "every one that drinketh of this
water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into
eternal life."
We can also visualize that oak
strangled with Spanish moss though its roots are well watered,
compare it to a Christian that becomes immersed in sin although he
may drink of the word of God – They like the Jewish nation which
has "truly been brought low. That which was once strong should
become low and his works a spark and they shall burn together and not
be quenched."
Another example of Israel's lost
estate, look at the weeping willow on the left of the picture. The
willow was once a token of joy and thanksgiving, to the Jews at the
feast of the Tabernacle. But when they were in Babylonian captivity,
it became a token of sorrow.
" By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged
our harps Upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that
carried us away captive required of us a song: And they that wasted
us required of us mirth, Saying, Sing us one of the songs of zion.
How shall we sing he Lord's song in a strange land? " Ps
137:1-4
Like a father who pampers a child
Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the
man whom he had formed - "In God's own image man was made to
glorify and praise- The Lord who formed him from the dust. The
ancient of days" – and out of the ground made Jehovah God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. And
Jehovah God commanded the man, saying of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it. Because Adam hearkened unto the
voice of his wife and ate of the tree God commanded him not to eat,
Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, and placed a
flame of a sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree
of life." Even then our God loved man whom he had created.
Though he put enmity between the devil and woman and between his seed
and the woman's seed – but the seed of the woman would bruise his
head, and the evidence of that fulfillment is seen in the cross. In
the picture you see a cross like a shaft of light the symbol of
Christ the light of the world. He pierced the clouds of sin and
misunderstanding. Came bringing light and hope to all men fulfilling
prophesy. "The people which sat in darkness saw a great
light: and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light
is sprung up" Matthew 4:16
Let us give thanks unto the Father, who
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us
into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have our
redemption, the forgiveness of our sins He who tasted death for
every man, having become perfect through sufferings became unto all
them that obey him the author of eternal salvation and brings us "to
the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
Rev. 2:7
Have you not made objects of the fleecy
clouds. Look in the clouds of the picture above the cross you see a
dove hovering over the cross. What more beautiful could symbolize
the spirit of God who is our comforter than the dove, a symbol of
peace and joy-
When Jesus was baptized, "the
Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a
voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee
I am well pleased." Luke 3:22
The dove was a sacrificial type of our
Savior. So here in the sun, the cross and the dove are things to
remind us of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The water completes the gospel painted
on this canvas. There are three on earth that hear witness: the
spirit, the water and the blood.
The death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ are the fundamental facts upon which the entire gospel rests.
They were the climax in God"s scheme of redemption.
In the water you see the symbol of the
Savior's grave from whence he arose in glory to reign supreme.
The penitent believer, that his sins
may be washed away in the blood of the lamb, is also buried with
Christ in the watery grave of baptism. Romans 6:3-5 II Timothy
2:11-12
"Except a man be born of water
and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ."
John 3:5
"He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved" Mark 16:16
The birds and the flowers of the
picture remind us of God's love and providential care as our savior
so beautifully said "Behold the fowls of the air: for they
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Father
feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by
taking thought can add on cubit unto his stature? And why take ye
thought of raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, nether do they spin: And yet I say unto you , that
even Solomon in all his glory was no arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you, O ye of little faith?" Matthew 6:26-30
As the water mirrors that which is
above, may you reflect Christ – is my prayer.
Blanch G. Perry