He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
When I was a child I was always fascinated by how my Mom’s Camellia Bush would bloom in fall. I can remember saying to her, “But, it’s not time for spring!”
That Camellia became a huge tree by the time we left the old house.
As I got older I appreciated how it was the only thing that did bloom in fall. When we moved Brandi and I couldn’t see not having one in the yard somewhere. This year our little Camellia bush has bloomed more than it ever has. Even with as rough of a year it was with all the heat and the drought.
With God, who says you can’t make it through the worst year ever and still bloom in Autumn? 🙂
8 years ago tonight. It was a Skatepark!
When the cross orders came pouring in I was pretty ok still working in the old shop where we used to live. The almost an hour drive back and forth didn’t bother me. The 14 hour days didn’t bother me.
What did bother me, is that I was used to having my boys with me.
At the old place next to the house they could come into the shop anytime they wanted to.
Missing them motivated me.
I started working through the nights at the old shop and napping occasionally on the old work table.
I was working as hard as I could to be able to take any day off to get this Cross making Barn up.
This is the night I broke down and cried in the yard as I watched them and thanked God for this gift of getting to see them again.
A Divine Window
Why I made the Divine Windows.
There is something very emotional within me that occurs when I see old abandoned church structures and they’ve always impacted me. Sometimes what wells up inside of me is a kind of sadness and a wondering of why it was no longer used.
I’ve seen a lot of these abandoned church buildings in my life. I know many of the smaller ones like we have here in rural Florida were built well away from city centers because they were not accepted dominations by the masses in cities at that time.
They built them to worship God in their way without any outside influence or persecution.
Most of these church buildings for many known and unknown reasons are now and have been abandoned.
They are mainly abandoned because the sprawl of those cities they avoided, came to them.
Lately though I have noticed an overwhelming amount of Church buildings for sale that are directly in the city’s centers. These are huge structures that housed very large congregations who worshipped there and were accepted by the city they were in.
They are not being sold to be church buildings any longer either, but rather to be used as large residential homes.
Some of these churches have stood in these city centers since those cities were founded two hundred years ago.
Once again, that sadness wells up inside of me seeing this. It can even give you a hopeless feeling.
Why am I sad to see these vacated buildings when I have not walked into a Sunday church service in over 8 years?
Because, just maybe, I knew that I could walk into one whenever I felt I needed to.
I understand that lock downs really affected that option 3 years ago for many people. And for many, it has now eliminated the option to walk in there on and Sunday morning.
For us, the last 8 years our church has been our home and especially in the barn where we make crosses.
We have said to anyone that enters here that this is a safe haven where we don’t let the outside world influence how we worship God and we don’t tell others how they should worship him either. We are just glad they are here with us to talk about God and witness to us.
I had a nice gentleman in our barn a couple of years ago that told me after I said this to him that I needed to get me and my family to church. And, that we needed to specifically go to his church.
I asked him to tell me why. Not to be combative…but to help me understand where he’s coming from.
I was quiet for a bit without saying a word to allow him to talk and share with me what his church meant to him. Because like I said to him when he entered. Our Barn is a safe haven for this.
Listening to him I sure enjoyed the story he told me of where he was coming from. Then, how he found God again among others in that church after a family tragedy. They really helped lift him up through that tough time.
When he was done I smiled at him. I told him that I was in the Barn currently working for the Lord 6 days a week and sometimes on Sundays too. Once again I wasn’t being combative. But, I asked him if it was better for me to worship and work for the Lord 6 days a week in here or just on Sunday and work for others the rest of the week?
He paused.
I then told him that my wife was a NICU nurse and that those babies won’t make it if no one is working there on Sundays. Someone has to be there and she has always stepped up to do her calling.
After we conversed back and forth for a bit we found a great understanding about where we both were coming from.
I ended that conversation with this verse written in Jesus’s own words.
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”Matt.18:20
I looked at him with a smile and said that I sure enjoyed having church with you today.
He shook my hand and said he did too. :)
What I’m getting at is that
Church was never solely in those now abandoned buildings. It’s just a place or a location where we are together with others in God’s name.
I made these windows for an important reminder. Whether that place you gather is at your home every night or in your work office every day.
It’s just a reminder that Church can be wherever you are with others, every day of the week.
Not just on Sunday’s.
Lancet Cross Window
This Lancet window is going to be an awesome challenge.
Shown on the right is the first rendering of this vision.
There’s a reason I’m making these and I’ll share that very soon. Saying less and listening more until then. 🙏
A place I know.
Most of the Sunset Crosses I paint are not places I know or have seen in person. But, this one, is a place I know in my heart.
When the boys were young things were very tight… Brandi worked weekends and I always tried to take off on the weekends to spend time with the boys. Maybe to just pretend that it wasn’t that bad and to also just to celebrate what we had. We couldn’t afford to take them to Chuck E Cheese, the movies, or other places you could take the kids to be “entertained.”
I had to get creative and go to places that we could spend time at, pack a lunch, and not spend any money. Gas a gallon was more than I made in an hour so we couldn’t go far either.
I recalled one day that little boardwalk on the river in downtown Milton, FL that I used to go to in college to get away and study between classes. It was a peaceful place and always refreshed me being there.
Boy was it different on the weekends though! I had no idea… The boys loved it though! There were jet ski’s and fast boats always cruising by and we’d walk the shores carefully looking for unique things.
We didn’t do much there most times we went but just sit and watch the world go by together. :)
And of course, we couldn’t leave until we got to see a train go over this turn style trestle over the entrance to the bay.
This is that place. Milton FLorida.
Glory of God
The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship. Day and night they keep on telling about God. Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world. Psalm 19:1-4 TLB
It has been since 2019 that these were last made. I’m picking up where I left off at number 55. The first four shown are made of cypress like the last ones. Then, I switched over to Maple for the next one and loved how brilliant the colors were on it!
They will be Maple from now on. 🙂
These new Sunset Crosses will be on a new page called “Sunset Crosses” on our website Sunday night at 8c.
#divinecrosses #sunset #sunsetcrosses #handpaintedcrosses #handmadewoodcrosses #woodcrosses #handpainted #watercolors
