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Blog Deep Thoughts Showing My Work

Heaven (06-12-23)

“Heaven is a well-kept lawn.”

Has someone said that? I can’t remember. It’s true, in a way. God gave Adam and already flourishing garden and told him to steward and cultivate it.

To steward is to preserve. To cultivate is to change.

God has created us to be creators. We use His creation to make our own. We preserve order and goodness, while changing it to suite our creative vision. This is worship.

Aerial painting of an elaborate lawn

This is part of my Public Domain Derivation Series.

HT Public Domain Review

Categories
Blog Deep Thoughts Showing My Work

Creators (06-01-23)

God has made us creators!

Lines and dots—that’s all it takes to create the idea, the image of a world. We we are creators, endowed by our Creator with this power. He has made us in His image: creative, imaginative, and resourceful. Of course, we cannot create anything out of nothing. Only He can do that. But He wants us to create from what He has created. Eden was not set in stone. Adam was there to steward and cultivate, to preserve creation and to recreate as befit Adam’s vision for the world God gave him. We create as He gives us resources and vision.

This is part of my Public Domain Derivation Series.

Categories
Blog Deep Thoughts Showing My Work

Bigger World (05-18-23)

Reality is More than We Perceive

The world is bigger than we think. Beyond the physical world, there is something more. All of our beliefs, values, hopes, dreams—all of it screams to us, calls out to us to wake us to this hidden reality.

“Lif[e] is not just what you see!” If we were only quiet enough to hear our heart song!

And yet—the world is smaller than we think. War, famine, crime, oppression—these big issues are actually smaller than we think. They all start across the street, across the country. If we are worried about the world, then let’s do something about it.

This is part of my Public Domain Derivation Series.

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Blog Deep Thoughts Showing My Work

Death’s Face (05-12-23)

The Face of Death For Many

What does Death look like? Does it look like something familiar, though terrifying in the twilight of life? Is it a strange thing to behold, this thing called “death”? It come[s] both swiftly and slowly, sudden[ly] and begrudgingly. It would seem that Death is rather inconsistent. Perhaps even he struggles to find joy in his work?

This is part of my Public Domain Derivation Series.

Plague Doctor
Categories
Blog Deep Thoughts Showing My Work

Perspectives (5-7-23)

Seeing Things From All Sides

Perspective—an universal element that is both common and rare.

We all have our own perspective that seems so self-evident to us.

And yet, the perspectives of others? Might as well be conceptual physics or advanced geometry, taught in Latin.

Of course, as complex as this sounds, it’s not impossible to learn and understand.

It just takes effort, time, and passion.

This is part of my Public Domain Derivation Series.

Three-Dimensional Spaces - The Fourth Dimension and the Bible, p. 14
Copy of my notebook page with the public domain image and my response
Categories
Blog Deep Thoughts Showing My Work

False God (3-7-23)

On Worship

Someone once said that humans were made to worship. The question, therefore, is what will we choose to pledge ourselves to?

To what or to who will we choose, with our free will, to offer our li[fe], our sou[l], our whole self to in worship?

If we chose God, we are pursuing the infinite, and we will expand to reflect His immense glory.

But if we bow our heads, hearts, and knees to a false god, to a finite, created thing, we will be reduced, hollowed out, in the process.

The appeal of an idol is obvious: apparent glory with no apparent strings attached. However, the glory of the creature is always a mere reflection of the Creator. His glory is everywhere and so is [seemingly] too subtle for its ubiquity.

And as far as strings, there are none. No hidden traps.

Are there demands made of the worshipper? Oh yes. He demands [worship from] all us. Why? So that He might given Himself away.

This is part of my Public Domain Derivation Series.

Design of lion on pedestal
Copy of my notebook page with the public domain image and my response