Meaning
This painting has two possible perspectives: right side-up, and upside-down. One feels natural and comfortable because of how we perceive and understand our physical reality. The other, however, feels uncomfortable, almost ethereal and otherworldly; it defies what we know to be true about our world. Its trees are not subject to gravity, nor are they rooted in the ground. In fact, they appear to be getting their life source from the waters above them (the blue, green, and gold). The mountains also are free from gravity, plus upside-down. Whereas normal mountains are stationary, these ones are completely unbound and seem as if they could move with the slightest wind. This perspective seems unreal.
This depicts how Heaven’s reality defies the parameters of our understanding. It is so much more incredible than we often believe it to be. I’m not saying we can’t understand it, but there is always more to discover. Heaven may seem mysterious, but it is discoverable; there will never be an end to what we can learn about it.[1] God’s understanding of our reality is so much better than our own. We may view our mountains as immoveable but, to Him, they are like dust to be blown away by the wind. What He is says is true about very real things such as anxiety is so much better than what the anxiety itself says is real; or what loneliness says, or sickness, or stress, or whatever. Heaven’s reality is always hopeful.[2]
But what if I’m not experiencing that hope? If I’m not experiencing it, then Heaven’s reality must not be true. Unfortunately there are many people that think this way; however, this sort of thinking is skewed. We live in a broken world subject to the kingdom of darkness. Satan’s goal is to steal, kill, and destroy and he targets everyone, including the children of God,[3] meaning we can experience hopelessness. Because of this, I refuse to build my beliefs about who God is on my experiences rather than what the Bible says to be true. Just because I’m not experiencing that truth, doesn’t make Heaven wrong. The good news is that Jesus overcame the kingdom of darkness, and put the authority to enforce that victory in our hands.[4] (Think of the devil as a squatter: he has no right to be here. It’s our job to drive him out). Because of the cross, we have full access to Heaven’s reality here and now. Its truth is already in us, but we need to engage it through faith.[5]
We do this by learning the way Heaven thinks on a matter and making that the way we think. In many passages, the Bible likens those whose faith is in the Lord to mighty trees planted by living waters (often described as streams or rivers).[6] These trees never wither; they are always green and always produce fruit. They have no fear of the weather and are firmly planted, drawing their life-source from the living water. In nearly every passage this metaphor is used, the Bible calls these people the righteous.
Before I get into the significance of this as it relates to the painting, there something I want to address about righteousness. We’ve been taught for so long that righteousness looks like something; that is true, but the way we’ve been taught leaves us striving to be righteous instead of living from righteousness. We’ve been taught that righteousness looks like love, doing good works, patience, giving to the poor, abstaining from sin, etc. We’ve been told, “Do this because this is what righteousness is.” Let me be clear, this is not wrong; the Bible clearly states all of this. However, in the same passages, the Bible also states that righteousness is not something we attain through works. All the things listed as what righteousness looks like are the fruit of righteousness, not the seed. The seed of righteousness is faith in Christ. This may seem trivial as it is a very foundational truth. Unfortunately though, many Christians don’t engage this truth. They fall into the death-cycle of striving to be righteous and doing good works to please God when God is already pleased and we are naturally righteous because of the work of Christ in us.
Righteousness engages the way Heaven thinks. In Genesis 15, Abraham is crying out to the Lord because he and Sarah are barren and have no children. The Lord has just told him that He will reward him greatly, but Abraham says, “What can you give me since I have no children and a servant will be my heir?” In other words, “There’s nothing I want more than children, but there’s no way that will happen now. What could you even possibly give me that I would want instead?” But God replies to Abraham, “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir” (vs.4). Then the Lord takes him outside and shows him the stars. “Try counting them,” He says, “it’s impossible. So shall it be with your offspring.” Abraham now has a decision to make. In his current circumstances, it is impossible for him and Sarah to have children. But the Lord looks at that and says, “No, no, Abraham, I’m going to give you so many children that you won’t even be able to count them!” Abraham could either put his faith in what his present situation is saying, or in what Heaven is saying about his situation. He chooses to believe the Lord and trusts that He would fulfill His promise. In faith, he engages how Heaven views his situation, and the Bible says that the Lord calls him righteous because of it.[7]
In the painting, this thought is represented by the trees. (They are purple to reinforce that it is faith-based righteousness, not works-based. The colour purple represents our identity as sons and daughters of God (the colour purple indicates royalty). Sons do not work for their identity; they are who they are because of their Father). These trees are unique because their root systems are not at their bases. They are floating trees; we should be able to see the roots, but we can’t. This is because their roots are coming from their heads drawing from the living waters which represent Heaven. This is a depiction of the renewing of our mind.[8]
We are meant to think differently. We are meant to be the people who are fearless even in the worst circumstances because our faith is rooted in Christ. We are meant to be the wisest people because we’ve spent time learning how God thinks. We are meant to be the most innovative and creative people on the planet because we have the mind of Christ. We are meant to be the people that can sleep in the storm like Jesus did because we see the storm through Heaven’s eyes. It’s not just about knowing Heaven’s truth about things such as worry; it’s about knowing its truth about the power of Christ in us. This is what Paul was asking for when he wrote, “I pray that the Lord would give you the Spirit of wisdom and understanding so that you might know Him better; enlightening the eyes of your heart so that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of God’s glorious inheritance deposited in you, and His immeasurably great power for you because of your faith.”[9]
The intention of this painting is to inspire us to engage the way Heaven thinks. All of Heaven’s perspective on reality can be summed up to this one secret that was revealed through the cross: Christ in you, the hope of glory.[10] That statement is pretty weighty. It is not meant to simply make you feel good. All of creation, every moment in time, and the entirety of our lives are defined by those few words. This painting is an invitation from God to go and discover what that means.
[1] This is depicted by the black streaks in the blue, green, and gold. Black represents mystery, blue is revelation.
[2] This is depicted by the yellow in the painting. Yellow represents hope.
[3] John 16:33
[4] Mark 16:15-18
[5] We can engage lies through faith therefore we must be able to engage truth. That’s how powerful our faith is. We have the option to give the enemy dominion in our lives by engaging lies; therefore, we can also give Heaven dominion in our lives by engaging truth.
[6] Jeremiah 17:7-8, Psalm 1:1-3, Numbers 24:6, Isaiah 61:3
[7] Genesis 15:6
[8] Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:17-24, Colossians 3:1-2. This is also why there are eight trees; eight is the number of new beginnings.
[9] Ephesians 1:17-19, paraphrased.
[10] Colossians 1:25-27.
Story
I was fully unprepared for this painting, both in creating it and in what it represents. I felt like I didn't put as much care into it as I do my other paintings, and yet it has the most revelatory meaning out of all of them. I showed up at an artist gathering at church with paints but without a canvas. Can't remember why, maybe it was just that kind of scatter-brained day. My aunt happened to have an extra canvas which she offered to me. I was grateful, but I didn't get to prepare it the way I normally would. Typically, I would gel it and build some texture, then give it another layer of gesso. I felt like this painting wasn't going to amount to much. Boy, was I wrong! I took it home, decided that I needed to give it the same care and attention I would any other painting despite its shortcomings, and got to work.
If you flip the painting, you see the perspective I painted it from. The trees just didn't look right in that perspective, so I flipped it. Now the trees were perfect, but the mountains weren't right. Confusing. Whilst befuddled, I kept hearing the song "Everything is Sacred" by Pat Barrett of which one of the lines is, "Oh, Heaven is upside-down." I kept hearing that song every time I looked at or worked on the painting for the next few weeks. Obviously, the Lord was trying to tell me something, so I leaned into the flipped perspective.
It didn't make sense until I started writing the meaning and the Lord began to speak. Once He started unveiling all the symbolism, I couldn't stop writing. There was so much that He wanted to say! And through the painting I felt was less than the others. I also had some hesitation while I was writing. I had been taught that prophetic art had to have a prophetic word, and whenever I leaned into revelatory words (words that are similar in nature to a sermon), I was told, "That's good, now what is the prophetic word the Lord is speaking in this moment to someone?" I know those who told me that didn't mean wrong, but I realize now that that idea was wrong. I have a teaching gift - I have a gift for unpacking and teaching the Word to others. I think it makes sense that the flavour of my prophetic paintings would be revelatory. Writing out the revelation the Lord was giving me through this painting was incredibly freeing. Whenever I felt hesitation, the Lord gently prompted me to be me. I am unique, and His voice through me reflects that uniqueness.
This is one of a string of paintings that have mountains in them which you can read a bit about here.