The other day I was very frustrated with oil paint because I had had a discouraging day of painting, AND I had forgotten to wash out my brushes. And when you forget to wash oil paint out of a paint brush, that is bad news. Brushes can easily get ruined if they are not properly washed out after every use. Replacing brushes is not a fun thing, seeing as they cost about $10-$20 each.
So I started cleaning them out, trying to salvage them (cleaning them a little more aggressively than usual). After about ten minutes of cleaning, I realized that I was starting to calm down. I started thinking about the act of cleansing, and how important it was. Then I realized that oil painting was hardly the only part of my life that required regular cleansing. I started thinking about how disfunctional and unproductive we can be when we haven't taken the time to pause, meditate, and cleanse our minds and hearts. When we wait until we have to repent and cleanse our lives, when we refuse to surrender our sins to Christ's cleansing atonement, we cannot become a useful brush in the Lord's hands in rendering a beautiful painting.
These are some of the ideas that inspired this piece. While it can mean many different things to many people (it means multiple things to me), cleansing and surrendering is an important part of this piece I just started. I can't wait to see what it turns out like. I hope to keep the purity and importance of the message as I add more colors and textures to this painting.
