more feasting

Here's an update on Becky's "feasting" work: as you can read in her notes here, she's begun the work on her actual clay piece and has provided an updated sketch. She has an interesting mix of perspectives, actually seeming to look down on the feasting table in Heaven when we're usually looking up, but then showing the table in context of a world map, implying how Heaven will be on the earth. Also note the river rocks in the upper right corner, which I assume allude to the river of life.

In addition, the figure in the foreground truly depicts being separated from God by the flames that block the way, but still allow the figure to see what is being missed - showing the true heartbreak of believers who don't want anyone to miss out. I can't wait to see the final work, with all of it's nuances. If you want to see this image larger (or any of the other images in this blog, for that matter, ) simply click on it!

feasting in the kingdom of heaven

Becky Baker recently shared her vision of feasting in heaven, a deliciously complex image full of meaning. Her sketch here is for a base of fired clay with images of collaged paper and paint to show a feast in heaven "among our beloved pets and family." On the lower section of the piece is an image of hell, separated from the feast. She says she also "will include an angel or two to show that they will be at the service of man in heaven." (See Hebrews 1:14.)

Becky's scriptural reference for this piece is Luke 14:15 which says, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God." This concept of feasting in heaven is repeated several times, including in Isaiah 25:6, Matthew 8:11 and Revelation 19:9. That's a meal you won't want to miss...

palm trees in heaven?

It all started during my regular cruise through the Bible. You know, that daily reading thing? Well, I just cruise through it, front to back, over and over again - eventually, anyway. So I just happened to be reading Ezekiel 40 one bright and sunny day and Ezekiel has this vision...

A guy who looks like bronze (no, really, like bronze) shows Ezekiel the temple area, first the east gate to the outer court, then the outer court, then the north gate, and so on. Mr. Bronze has a measuring stick and is measuring all these rooms for Ezekiel and Ezekiel dutifully tells us all the dimesions of these rooms. I'm thinking that this is an unusually slow day's worth of reading when I begin to notice something: each room is described in painfully measured detail, so long by so wide by so high, blah blah blah and then, "The doorjambs between the alcoves were decorated with palm trees." No really - boring measurements, then a little detail about decoration, the same decoration, six times over - go look it up for yourself.

The vision continues on through Ezekiel 41 and then in Ezekiel 43:7, "This is the place I will live with the Israelites forever." (That's God speaking.) I find this utterly facinating. God is showing Ezekiel his holy temple where he'll live forever, so that's on the New Earth, and he bothers to mention decorating the place with palm trees. Six times.

So being slightly obsessed with trees (you can see my Tree Stories blog by looking at my profile) I look up the significance of palm trees to Jews. I discover it has been a symbol of Judah and - drum roll, please - a symbol for the tree of life. The tree of life that was planted in Eden and is now in "the paradise of God" and will be alongside the river flowing out of the temple in the New Jerusalem. Pretty cool, huh?

I've decided to make the palm tree my own recurring theme for all my Heaven artwork, most likely always up the sides of my images, like the carvings on the temple doorposts. And no doubt, a few will show up in my photos, as they already have.

something from Eileen Downes

One of our resident collage artists, Eileen Downes, sent a heaven image to me, created in response to her father's death, I believe a few years ago. She says, "It is about talking, visiting, and communing with God in his dwelling place, heaven. Clock imagery is added as a reference to time both eternal and to our time here on earth. Some words and phrases are visible, but most important is the phrase 'to embrace the dream.'"

Eileen pairs the piece, a 13 x 10" collage titled "My Visit With God," with the Biblical reference that God has prepared a place for us in heaven to be with Him. "In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. And I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also will be where I am. You know the way to the place that I am going." John 14: 2-4

The subject of heaven and loved ones that have gone through the door of death form a natural juxaposition. It can also be a great source of comfort for those of left behind. I personally find this piece interesting because I, too, have a piece of artwork that I was working on when my father died, and it became part of my grieving process. In its own way, that piece also references heaven, so maybe I'll post it as well, at some time in the future.

timeline notes

I wanted to explain a bit about my "Timeline of Heaven" piece, just a couple posts below...

The whole concept for the piece came when I was reading Randy Alcorn's "In Light of Eternity," and he was mentioning something about the five stages of heaven. This thought was brand-new for me, and frankly started to trigger some skeptical thinking. I adopted a "where is it written?" attitude to teachings about the Bible a long time ago, and I wasn't going to take Randy's word about five stages of heaven lightly and just keep moving on. So I started to study his references and being a visual person, I decided to draw a time line to help me literally see what he was talking about.

It was pretty amazing to me how the whole thing played out - and though it's not labeled in the Bible, the five stages of heaven concept certainly held up to scrutiny. In fact, Paul actually refers to the "third heaven" in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, which totally blew my mind, because that's where it fit on my time line.

Briefly, the five stages are as follows, in case you can't read my scribbles on the page above. There are actually more Biblical references than I've noted here, but I've kept it fewer in the interest of keeping my visuals simple.

First: Heaven before the fall of Satan. Satan's fall is found in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-17.

Second: Heaven in Old Testament times and before Christ died, often referred to as "Paradise" as in Luke 16:22.

Third: Heaven presently, after Christ's resurrection, Christ is currently in Heaven as found in Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:1-4; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Hebrews 9:11, 23-24; Acts 1:11 and Hebrews 8:2.

Fourth: Christ's millennial reign on earth, as depicted in Revelations 19:11-16 and Revelations 20:6-10.

Fifth and eternal: Heaven on earth, called the "New Heavens and the New Earth" in Revelations 20:14-15, Revelations 21 & 22, as well as in Isaiah 65.

Once I got all that down on a time line, it suddenly occurred to me that it would make a great overlay for one of my new earth images, which finally resulted in the finished piece as posted previously.

Of course, that doesn't explain the palm trees along the edges, but that will wait for another day.

work from Jared

Responding to my request, our very own Jared Konopitski has sent in a couple images. You may notice Jared has his own style, like an illustrative cartoon, in these cases very light hearted. Very versatile, he can also depict darker scenes with this same style, which maybe I'll get to post some of later.

This one is "Isaiah 11:8," which says, " The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm."

This is part of the prophetic writings in Isaiah regarding the new earth, after Christ comes back to earth and restores it, a great source of heaven imagery!

More new earth imagery from Isaiah and Jared...

"Isaiah 55:12" reads, "You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!"


Now folks, it's time for some more work from some others - I'll work on getting some basic stuff posted soon, too.

first image posting: Timeline of Heaven

This piece is titled "Timeline of Heaven", a mixed media photograph by Judith Monroe (that would be me.)

I hope we can post more images soon - maybe something cool from Jared?

and so it begins

As our heaven study winds down, we move it cyber space...