Art Wins

I've been carrying a little birthday money around with me for quite some time now. The plan was to buy a knife, you know, the kind you can only afford once in a while, so it takes several years to fill that expensive knife block. That was the plan.

I was browsing through a bookstore recently, and art called my name when I saw this painting by Brian Kershisnik.

I include a small image here but you can see (and buy!) the larger and even lovelier image by clicking on the artist's name above.

I have seen and admired Brian Kershisnik's work before. (I saw a full wall mural of his Nativity painting at the BYU art museum this year and had to stand and look at it for 10 minutes.) But something about this painting at this exact moment just resonated with me and made my cells hum. I couldn't look away. I had to push the tears back so I didn't look like an idiot crying in the bookstore. 

Then I turned the painting around and saw the title, "She Will Find What Is Lost," and I gained an appreciation for the work on another level. The title is a perfect marriage of an image with words. I admit it: a few tears actually leaked out.

The meaning of art is personal to each of us. I can't really explain what this means to me, but here are some of the questions that go through my mind as I look at it. Maybe you'd like to ask yourself some of these too as you look at the painting. 

His Angels Have Us in Their Keeping

photo courtesy www.LDS.org/quote from Elder Henry B. Eyring/design by Jennifer

"There is not one of us but what God’s love has been expended upon. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels—invisible beings of power and might—charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping."
George Q. Cannon

Someone to Watch Over Me

One recent morning, I spent three or four hours straight emailing and calling lots of teachers and school counselors, playing secretary/advocate/cheerleader behind the scenes for my kids. I then spent the rest of the day cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking a nice dinner. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to stay at home.  And I love being my kids' biggest advocate and fan.

But I figured that at the end of the school day, the munchkins would probably barge through the door, grab a snack, and plop down in front of a screen without so much as a hello-mother-how-was-your-day. They would be totally unaware of all of the work I had done on their behalf, work that had an immediate, direct blessing on their lives.

As I pondered, the situation took on a greater meaning for me.

When that teacher called my kid aside after class and said, "I understand you're missing an assignment. You can turn it in tomorrow without a penalty," they may have thought, "Wow, that was lucky. It's like the teacher read my mind."

When the choir uniform just happened to show up on time and paid for, it was wonderful that it everything just feel together so neatly.

When those messy graduation credits somehow worked themselves out, and the counselor called someone down to their office to talk them through it, that was a great coincidence since it had really been a big stress.

How much is going on that we can't see, so we are completely oblivious of it? Who is helping us behind the scenes that we are totally unaware of? I think loved ones--mortal and immortal--are busy smoothing our path, easing our way, comforting and assisting us in ways we can't even imagine. What else would they want to be doing but helping God bring His children home?