A Heavenly Commission

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by a young lady who asked me to do a very special drawing. She explained that her son was born two years ago, and he lived for 28 days; he never came home from the hospital.  She asked if I could do a drawing of him without his tubes and bandages. Well, my first thought was, “I’ve never done that but I could certainly try… and she will never have another photo of her baby, so I must try.”  I draw strictly from photos, not from my ‘mind’ (I’m not that skilled yet). She sent a few photos she had taken when the baby was in the hospital… and, yes, I was unsure when I saw the photos. His little face, with the tubes and bandages, told of his struggle to live.  I doubted my ability to do it but I asked God to show me this baby’s face without tubes and bandages, and healthy; the way he might have looked as he was ushered into the arms of the Lord.

As I started to draw, the neatest thing started to happen. My physical eyes studied the photo (as usual), however, my mind’s eye started to see a healthy baby with no bandages or anything. As I continued to draw I was excited  to see how his face came to life for me, I even heard God whisper to me about what I needed to do to portray the child’s little face and body. It was definitely a new challenge and a different kind of experience for me.When I completed it, I was silenced by the results. Not that it is a perfect, artistically-skilled, and technically astounding drawing, but I felt I had totally succeeded in rendering an accurate likeness… only because God guided/showed me. Most of all I felt God approved and was pleased, and that HE had commissioned me to do this particular drawing.