Recently, as I was talking to Amy Rowell, she offered me the challenge of painting a more obvious “Christian“ themed painting. I tend to not do “Christian Art”.  Just art. Yet as a christian, I hope the art I make will reveal something about God. 

I've been discouraged lately. I'm looking for Jesus through all my fear and frustration. I'm hoping He has all this chaos in his control. I thought about Mary in the garden. She must have been utterly discouraged. She had just watched Jesus die hours earlier. Now she couldn’t even find his body to anoint for burial. Was she ready to give up? Did she fear for her safety, her future? At the very least, she must have been questioning what just happened.

And then a man she mistook for the gardener said her name.
And she realized it was her Lord.
She was not looking for the living God, yet he still revealed himself to her.
Glory to God!

John 20:15-18
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. 

Surprised in the Garden
12”x12” oil on board