This morning, a happy three year old sprawled on my foyer floor and drew circles, squiggles and lines with colored markers on a large white foam board. He couldn’t explain his drawing—but he sure had fun. I can’t explain this picture—but I sure had fun.
In this painting, I’ve painted barrenness and mystery to stir adrenalin and recognizable growing places to offer security. Sunshine balances the dark cloud. Is it approaching or departing? The tensions between foreboding and hope remind me of an unforgettable moment of make-believe I experienced as a teenager in 1958. My grandmother had taken me to the State-Lake Theater in Chicago to see Oscar Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Not knowing how the film would end, I was frozen in a mixture of pure delight and dreadful premonition while listening to John Kerr (as Lieut. Cable) and France Nuyen (as Liat) sing “Happy Talk.” I’ve felt that mix of unknowing again and again over they years. Fortunately, for believers in Jesus, it’s okay not to know every outcome. While our own dreams fail and our emotions falter, He says, “Fear not.” God’s plans for us and His endings are always to be trusted. We can let go of our plans to seek His dreams and visions and continue to believe.
Happy talk, keep talking happy talk,
Talk about things you’d like to do,
You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?
Oscar Hammerstein
