My Longing is Thy Promise

My Longing is Thy Promise

8×10″ pen on paper
June 8, 2012

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Inspired by the following passage from Within and Without by George MacDonald:

Last night, as now, I seemed to speak with Him;
Or was it but my heart that spoke for Him?

“Though mak’st me long,” I said, “therefore wilt give;
My longing is Thy promise, O my God!
If, having sinned, I thus have lost the claim,
Why doth the longing yet remain with me,
And make me bold thus to beseige Thy doors?”

Methought I heard for answer, “Question on.
Hold fast thy need; it is the bond that holds
Thy being yet to Mine. I give it thee,
A hungering and a fainting and a pain,
Yet a God-blessing. Thou art not quite dead
While this pain lives in thee. I bless thee with it.
Better to live in pain than die that death.”

So I will live, and nourish this my pain;
For oft it giveth birth unto a hope
That makes me strong in prayer. He knows it too.
Softly I’ll walk the earth; for it is His,
Not mine to revel in. Content I wait.
A still small voice I cannot but believe,
Says on within: God will reveal Himself.

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But When I Find

But When I Find

8×10″ oil on canvas panel
September 2, 2012

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Inspired by the following passage from “Love’s Ordeal” by George MacDonald:

But when I find a heart whose blood is wine; —
Whose faith lights up the cold brain’s passionless hour;
Whose love, like unborn rose-bud, will not pine,
But waits the sun and the baptizing shower–

Till then lies hid, and gathers odours fine
To greet the human summer, when its flower
Shall blossom in the heart and soul and brain,
And love and passion be one holy twain–

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High-Parent Love

High-Parent Love

8×10″ watercolor on paper
July 13, 2012

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Inspired by the following lines from Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald:

What has been, shall not only be, but is.
The hues of dreamland, strange and sweet and tender
Are but hint-shadows of full many a splendor
Which the high Parent-love will yet unroll
Before his child’s obedient, humble soul.

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I Ask Not Whither Lord, For I Know It Must Be On

I ask not whither, Lord, For I know it must be on

8×10″ pencil on paper
July 28, 2012

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Inspired by the following lines from Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald:

I ask not whither, Lord.
For I know it must be on.

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Ah, God! Why Are Our Souls, Lone Helpless Seas

Ah, God! why are our souls, lone helpless seas

11×14″ oil on canvas
July 1, 2012

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Inspired by the following passage from A Story of the Sea Shore by George MacDonald:

Ah, God! why are our souls, lone helpless seas,
Tortured with
such immitigable storm?
What is this love, that now on angel wing
Sweeps us amid the stars in passionate calm;
And now with demon arms fast cincturing,
Drops us, through all gyrations of keen pain,
Down the black vortex, till the giddy whirl
Gives fainting respite to the ghastly brain?
Not these the maiden’s questions. Comes he yet?
Or am I widowed ere my wedding
day?

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