Just a painting...

“I don’t want to impose, but if you have the time, I have a special request.”

“Sure.” I answered. “What is it?”

“I wanted to see if you could do a painting for me, but uh… I need it by Tuesday.”

Three days notice? I know the tone of this kind of request. I understand the urgency and motive behind it. I’ve heard it before. The motive is one of wanting to do something special for someone else, or for one in need. A painting is special and well, more thoughtful than a gift certificate. These requests come randomly, always unexpected. The choice is mine, to do or not to do. It is very short notice, but the choice is easy.

Before I said yes, I knew there was something divine about this particular situation.

It wasn’t until AFTER I said yes, that I found out what.

A friend of friend… that’s who this is for. Her name unknown, but her story has been lived by a million women over and over. The wife of an alcoholic, battered by the storm that only vodka and whiskey can create. She prayed unceasingly to be rescued. She cried out in the depths of her sorrow for her children to not witness their father fallen completely victim to his addiction. She did everything in her power to save and to piece her marriage together… the man she loved. At some point during this tumultuous storm, the waves surged and levy broke.

At some point, you must realize the situation and make a choice.

A choice. We as humans are the only creatures God created of free will. We get to choose. Sometimes those choices are easy. Sometimes those choices cloak our hearts with guilt and grief.

“Could you put her life verse on the painting?” my friend asked.

“Of course”, I said.

Her choice was not easy. Stay with her alcoholic husband, her love of her life… or leave for her children and own sanity of a better life. I do not envy the choice this woman had to make. I do not know her at all. But I do know she is a strong woman. I do know she has a love that is deeply embedded in her heart, and that this love was what motivated her choice.

“Okay, here it is. It’s weird I know, but it’s what she wants.”

“That’s fine”, I said. “Shoot!”

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills” ~ Deuteronomy 8:7

I wish this young woman happiness, peace and joy as she begins her new journey. I have no idea where she is headed, or the plans she has made. But I do know that she will be just fine, because she is strong... because her life verse gives away what is hidden in her heart.

I wonder if she has any idea how her story, her verse, her life… her choice, has touched a part of me? I understand her choice and I understand her hope in a promise that can come from only One.