This painting was one I had tested photo transfer methods upon.  I looked at the canvas for almost a year.  Praise God, I could not throw it away.  I love this painting after working back into it.  It is in a friends collection because I didn’t throw it away.  My students laugh at me because they think I am a pack rat. I am not really, honestly… I’m not.

But I do teach my art students when painting or printmaking not to toss out anything, because, “everything is redeemable.”  God does not toss out any circumstances in the lives of his children.  If we submit ourselves to Him and His Goodness and His Ways, He can bring those characteristics out of everything in our lives.  Deep depression, terrible struggles, and illnesses, everything.  I believe God never wastes the pain of the children He loves.  He redeems all the things we think are His mistakes in our lives.

John 15:4-6New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Look, even the obstinate branches are thrown into fire and made into fuel.  He uses everything.

 The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.