‘From Out Of Waters’ started as a mistake. I painted over the same canvas a number of times until I was left with a blue base that looked something like water. I sat the canvas on my easel and simply stared at it.

As I looked, I saw the purple flowers and so I painted them in.

Then I waited.

A couple of days later I saw the white flowers. So again, I painted them in; then I waited.

Already this painting had begun to speak to me about emerging from water. When I was diagnosed with cancer last September, I felt the Lord speak to me through Isaiah 43:

“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown…” Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)

I felt certain I was meant to be adding some writing in the bottom left hand corner but I didn’t know what it was. I wondered whether I should paint in the verse from Isaiah but somehow it just didn’t seem right.

A little while later, I went to stay with a friend. One day as I was lying on the bed, the poem on this painting just ‘dropped’ into my mind. I knew from the first line that it was being given to me for the painting – it was such an unexpected surprise!

So from beginning to end, this painting was an adventure. I never knew the next step until it came to me but every step was one filled with beauty and promise and life.