The Matrix, 2014

The Matrix

I started this painting on December 31, 2013, while web streaming the OneThing Conference from IHOP-KC during Matt Gilman's worship bringing in 2014. It has evolved, layer upon layer, since that New Year's night. A little like our lives, the times we live in, our memories, our understanding of truth, our transformations, as we grow and experience this life. I got the name from the movie "The Matrix," (though my son thinks that's a silly name for it). But I feel it fits. The movie is really about two realities... or should I say, the world that we think we live in, and the world that is Truth... It is the realm of the "totally other than" that I am exploring, expressing, and hoping to interest you, the viewer, into pondering. And I am realizing that in every artwork I do poses a question. And I know now that it is the way that the Lord, my God and Father, whom I most affectionately refer to as Abba, communicates with me. The question. Not because He is in need of an answer, for He is the Creator of all things, and knows our thoughts before we do... but because He created us to be critical thinkers, and wants us to connect to Him through wisdom and understanding. There is nothing hidden from His sight, there is no searching His understanding, as Isaiah 40 puts it. 

"Who else has held the oceans in his hand?
    Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who else knows the weight of the earth
    or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
 Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?
    Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
 Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?
    Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice?" Is. 40:12

"Haven't you heard? Don't you understand? 

Are you deaf to the words of God—
the words he gave before the world began?
 Are you so ignorant? 

God sits above the circle of the earth.  

The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!
 

He spreads out the heavens like a curtain
and makes his tent from them. 

He judges the great people of the world
and brings them all to nothing. 

They hardly get started, barely taking root,
when he blows on them and they wither.
The wind carries them off like chaff. 

“To whom will you compare me?
 Who is my equal?”

asks the Holy One."  Is. 40:21-25

"Lift up your eyes on high,

And see who has created these things,

Who brings out their host by number;

He calls them all by name,

By the greatness of His might

And the strength of His power;

Not one is missing."      Isaiah 40:26 

"Why do you say, O Jacob,And speak, O Israel:

“My way is hidden from the Lord,And my just claim is passed over by my God”?"     Isaiah 40:27

The Matrix
30x40 inches, mixed media on canvas
2014

"Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint."               Isaiah 40:28-31