“Come to the waters”
My prayers have been kind of sketchy lately.
Just yesterday my church kicked off a 21 Days of Prayer initiative, leading up to Pentecost on June 4. We handed out a devotional to follow as well as small notebooks to journal in as you go along. But we also urged people to respond to their Bible readings and prayers in the way that suits them best.
Though I am an artist and a Christian and have been both for as long as I can remember, I have never drawn my prayers or sketched anything in response to scripture reading. I’m not sure why I haven’t. Maybe I wasn’t given the permission to do so. Or maybe it goes hand in hand with the long dry spell I went through as an artist. Whatever it was, I decided to journal this 21 Days of Prayer with drawing.
Our first passage to read and pray about was Isaiah 55. Below is this beautiful text, full of imagery. Below that are the four sketches I made in response to it. They are nothing extraordinary but they are a first for me. Hopefully, there will be many more to follow…
Isaiah 55
Invitation to the Thirsty
55 “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
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