No longer night...

from Sword Magazine (with permission)

  
Jesus promised the light of life
and release from darkness to all who would follow Him.



Patricia Griffin not only discovered the literal truth of this, she discovered that the Lord was calling her to ‘make it plain’ – and paint it!

How can you capture a moment of dawn? At what point is it no longer night? I do not know. What I do know is that a 'slow and certain light' must have been dawning in me even while I slept through five or six decades. As a family, we went to Church faithfully. I knew some of the Bible stories and at Christmas time I learned that Jesus was God's Son, born of Mary the virgin. Then during the war, we shared our 'evacuation' home periodically with several Jewish ladies whom my father helped to emigrate to America. I was not asking any questions about anything.

After the war, Art School, marriage, a move to England, family - then a 'black time' and divorce. But from that place of heart-cry, I was overtaken by the Living God. This proved to be the pivotal point of my life. The rays from the rising sun were growing stronger now and I began to read the Bible from the beginning... Some years later, I was given a little booklet about Jesus as the traditional Jewish bridegroom, betrothed to the true Church, His Bride. One day she would be married to The King of the Jews! This woke me up! The full glory of the sun was shining brightly now and I was full of hungry questions!

 Later, I travelled to Israel, the cradle of our faith. Worshipping our Lord with Jewish and Gentile believers from many nations, all singing in Hebrew, was and is a very moving experience. The Word of God sprang to life for me.

    By the time I returned to Scotland after half a century in England, I had become acutely aware that there surely was God-given blessing for those who would bless Israel - against all secular opinion.

In the summer of 2007 I attended the CLAN Gathering at St. Andrews. After one of the seminars, the invitation for prayer was directed at those who felt they needed an 'oil change'! I knew that was for me, and as the Holy Spirit answered my longing, I was completely overwhelmed by my inability to articulate what was rising in me.

There was also some anger at having been deprived of the truth that the roots of our faith are Hebraic and not Greek: 'built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone' (Ephesians 2:20, emphasis added) - that we need the 'whole Bible' not merely the 'New Testament'.

To my amazement, the lady praying with me understood completely and we prayed together about that. So now I knew that I had to try and express this. But how?

Roots visible!

Paint it! Paint a tree with its roots 'visible' under the earth. So I found some A3 paper and began sketching a rough layout. What does a vine leaf look like? My rusty old paintbox still had the colours I needed, but I made a big mess of the roots. Then phrases like 'use a biro, red fine-point', 'use a sponge, dab it on', and 'use masking tape' popped into my mind so clearly, as I worked and prayed. So I began again...
     When I had finished, I realised I needed also to paint 'a more credible vine' - 'landscape'. Yes but... 'landscape!'. And so it was. The journey from finding out the vine-leaf shape to the writing of the Hebrew letters was a very personal and thrilling series of tuition sessions from The Master. I did not always get it right. I had to release my efforts and start again several times. There was a real spiritual battle over this, but I was given a wonderful gift of the joy of the Lord, even when I had to cope with an accident and weeks of incapacity. It was a delight to give myself to this task.

Great encouragement came from Jewish friends and family and church friends gave invaluable help with practicalities. The Lord's guidance was so specific - And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37:31)

My earnest prayer is that these paintings will convey something of God's urgent message to the Church of today.



Patricia Griffin's inspired images are available to purchase as greetings cards through 'Yachad Scotland' - a network of ministry leaders who stand with Israel because God does!

Contact:
Yachad by e-mail or
Write to: 'Cards', Tighard, Urlar Road, Aberfeldy PH15 2ET or




Article originally published in Sword Magazine (Jan/Feb 2009). Reprinted with permission.
You can obtain the article in Adobe (PDF) format by clicking here.