Prohetic Art: Leaves - life is short
Just around the corner
In 2005 I made an image of leaves blowing in the wind to suggest how fleeting life on earth is. I believed someone in the church needed to know this. I told someone at church about the art work I had just made, when they asked me what I was doing. Later I found out she had just miscarried.
In 2005 I also created an image called "Disaster is just around the corner" because I thought disaster was just around the corner. God had impressed upon me the bible verses about how short life is. I saw a dead kangaroo on the side of the road. I thought that disaster had been "just around the corner" for it. I thought that disaster was just like a car accident I had been in in 1997 when I came around a corner and hit flood waters, which caused the van I was in to spin and roll.
December 17, 2005, I uploaded my image to an online gallery, hoping that the people who needed to know how short life is would see it.
I pondered this idea with some anxiety for some months especially when I saw a lot of dead kangaroos one day. I worried that disaster was heading Australia's way. Disaster for one then many. I created Hourglass view: we party on without much forethought and used it for a competition of conservation. It was used for the cover of The Megsphone magazine in 2007.
I reminded myself that I didn't need to be anxious because I am God's and He is mine. In March 2006 I was later than normal setting out to work and the sun was higher at this time of morning. I often pray as I drive the half hour or so to work along the highway. I had just finished praying because I was about to turn a corner and exit the highway. The sun blinded me. I couldn't see what was up ahead. I was horrified as I caught a glimpse of what I thought was a bus in front of me ... very white. I imagined all the children in the bus as the glass shattered in a circular web like pattern and the vehicle came through the screen. My head flew forward. It wasn't a bus. It was a parked truck. I sat in the car stunned for a long time. When I did get out I couldn't stand up for long. My legs felt as though they would collapse. The police arrived. My husband Peter and daughter arrived and I was taken to hospital ...
When I saw the images my daughter had taken of the car I thought of Job: "thus far and no further." Disaster can only lick at my heels because the Almighty One has a different perspective concerning things that happen on earth. He brings good things out of what we might think of as disasters. He protects those who come to Him for refuge from losing the most valuable things and I am convinced that a relationship with Him is the "treasure of treasures" more valuable than assets, even the asset of life on earth. We are like leaves in the wind.
I searched out the meaning of the word "disaster" and found that it's original meaning was "unfavorable position of the astrological bodies." The sun certainly had been in an unfavorable position for me! Disaster had been just around the corner, but I was comforted by the knowledge that God knew.
God has power to still the storms, break the chains and move mountains safely for the people around them. After my accident, I began to intercede instead of worrying about the future.