Portraits

Kent, my son in law, is an accomplished artist. I love what he does. He uses coloured pencils to produce the most amazing drawings. His technique involves applying small strokes of pencils to obtain the effect desired, and that effect is quite remarkable. I will let you judge that by yourself: https://www.facebook.com/kentartistportraits/

I am exceptionally good at drawing stickmen, but that is the extent of my talents with pencils. On the other hand, I like to use words and images. Instead of coloured pencils and paper, the tools I work with are the written word and insights gleaned from a kaleidoscope of experiences over a 71-year span.

Kent and I do have something in common. Kent is mostly a portrait artist. He has produced a large number of portraits of various people and fictional characters. I also am a portrait artist, but I am working on a single portrait and I do not yet know how the finished product will look like. Each of my stories is but a small stroke in that overall process. I sense that the portrait I am attempting to draw in everything I write is always the same one, that of the face of Love in my life. We are all called upon to do exactly that: draw the face of Love in our own lives using the talents, the tools and the fabric of every day living that we have been gifted with. 

Parents proudly display drawings made by their children no matter how rudimentary and awkward these are. I think God does the same thing with our attempts to draw his face!