Unique Beauties
Words and pictures by Fliss Hedge, Redruth, Cornwall
During this period of lockdown God gifts us with ways to better connect with Him.
After about four weeks of lockdown, my stress was high and the juggle of work and keeping the children happy was draining. We were also fitting around my husband who has been working full-time from the kitchen, and the lack of space was hard. We started some fun kids art tutorials online and I really enjoyed them.
One evening I had a real urge to go and draw and paint my own. I found an image I liked on Pinterest and an old sketch book in the cupboard, and had a go. It was pretty basic and I only had the children's paint set but I really enjoyed it.
I soon ordered my own set of watercolours and discovered I could actually make a picture look like it was supposed to. It was revelatory. I'd always thought I wasn't any good at drawing, so it came as a real surprise. I feel really peaceful and connected to God when I paint, and even in the day when we're all jammed around the table doing our own things I feel like I'm painting with Him and my peace is restored.
It's been a lifeline from God to me during this time; a way of connecting and flowing from Him even in the midst of small children and noise. I've been asking Him what He'd like me to paint each time and then listening as I do it. The detail in the birds or flowers I'm painting speaks of His beauty and creation, and stirs up praise, and then often He'll unpack the image too. It's not listening to gain insight for a purpose, just to hear His heart and get to know Him more. I really treasure the time we spend painting. I've just started asking God for pictures for people and painting them, and giving them with a prophetic word. It feels like a wonderful gift that God gave me when He saw me struggling to meet Him in the chaos, and I'd really like to pass it on to others.
I feel like a new creativity has been unlocked in me. I woke up with this running through my head one morning in May, and wrote down what I heard. It's been speaking to me of launching out in who we are and being free to be the unique beauties we are created to be;
It's time for urges and surges,
And new methods, and setbacks,
It's time for lie ins, and early rises,
For the dawn chorus, and the long morning in bed.
It's time to discover the new, and dig up the old.
It's time to be and listen,
and sit, and ponder.
It's time to listen to our bodies, and settle our racing hearts,
to regroup, and recalibrate.
It's time to become.
To de-layer,
to shed the stuff we don't need.
To find who we are.
To celebrate our individuality and differences.
No compromise, no comparison.
To adapt, and change, while we also become and discover.
It's time to be us.
Uninterrupted, unashamed, real, authentic. Us.
Check out more of Fliss’s art at her instagram
Words and pictures by Fliss Hedge, Redruth, Cornwall
Jun 9
