His Name Is A Melody
His Name is a Melody is a twelve painting series broken into three sections. It started as a daydream. I had imagined my paintings hanging in public and was describing to someone how each painting was a depiction of my worship and love for Jesus when Jesus Himself interrupted me. "Why don't you do that?" He said, "Record your worship, take a screenshot of the sound waves and paint them... twelve of them." Clearly, He had something in mind. So I started recording.
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This series is still in process, the next part is coming soon!
My Heart's Desire
“My Heart’s Desire,” consisting of four paintings, is the first part of my twelve-work series “His Name is a Melody.” Each painting in the series is a visual snapshot of the presence of God converging with my worship. Together, these first four portray the desire of my heart to know Him and how He responds to that desire.
One
Acrylic on canvas. 36"x30". Completed in 2019. Original sold.
The first painting depicts God’s response to my cry of “show me your heart.” It’s a cry to know the depths of who He is. One of the most beautiful things about the relationship between God and man is knowing and being known by God. This is not just by intellect - it was never meant to be solely intellectual – but instead, it is by encounter. Spending time with Him is like exploring a deep cavern where there are treasures waiting to be discovered, a feeling conveyed in this painting. It is very exciting, and it is also very precious and intimate.
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It is God’s desire for intimacy with us; He is passionately pursuing us. When we turn our love and affection towards Him and ask, “show me your heart,” we discover His affection that is already turned towards us. We discover that in His heart is unfathomable love.
Two
Acrylic on canvas. 40"x30". Completed in 2020. Original sold.
The second painting depicts God’s response to my cry of “show me your glory.” It expresses a beautiful moment of God revealing His nature. God’s goodness and His glory are one and the same. In Exodus 33, when Moses asks the Lord, “Show me your glory,” how does the Lord respond? He says, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you.”[1] This suggests that His goodness and His glory are one. To experience His goodness is to experience His glory, and to experience His glory is to experience His goodness.
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In the moment expressed in this painting, God reveals His glory by overwhelming with His unimaginable goodness. This painting is a glimpse of the marvelous wonder of who He is. It’s an explosive moment of Heaven and Earth uniting as He expresses His goodness towards us as we turn to Him.
[1] Exodus 33:18-19 (NIV).
Three
Acrylic on canvas. 24"x36". Completed in 2020. Original sold.
The third painting depicts God’s response to my cry of “show me your face.” It captures the moment of looking up into the light of His face only to be caught up in His beauty. In Psalm 4:6, David writes, “Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’ Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord,” (NIV). This implies that to look upon God’s face is to look upon His goodness, expressing (like the revelation from the previous painting) that goodness is in His nature. In the beauty of His face, all good things are found. The direction of the waves in this painting conveys the action of looking up – up above our struggles, fears, hurts, confusion – and into His face where we experience Him pouring out His goodness. The next few verses of the Psalm describe the peace, joy, and safety found in the light of God’s face. His face is a place of refuge. It is where we are enveloped in His life, joy, and peace; it is where we are safe in His love. We can always seek His face to experience His goodness. He will never hide it from us.
Four
Acrylic on canvas. 24"x36". Completed in 2020. Original sold.
The fourth painting depicts God’s response to my cry of “I want to see you.” It’s a cry of yearning, expressed in excitement and wonder at who God is. Imagine looking into His eyes and getting caught up in an incredible vastness akin to the swirling of the galaxies – captivated by the never ending limitlessness of Him. In Ephesians 3:17-19, Paul writes about the incredible vastness of God’s love. He says, “I pray that you…may have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,” (vs 17-18, NIV). Then, after praying that we would know how much love God has for us, he goes on to say that this love is so great that it surpasses knowledge. It’s so great that it’s limits cannot be comprehended. In other words, God’s love is infinite, endless, immeasurable, and boundless. We will never reach the end of God’s love. It doesn’t matter what we do or where we go, His love is always there. It is a great ocean whose depths cannot be fathomed. Imagine looking into His eyes and discovering all that love directed towards you, imagine that overwhelming feeling – that is what this painting captures.
Passion
“Passion,” consisting of five paintings, is the second part of my twelve-work series “His Name is a Melody.” Each painting in the series is a visual snapshot of the presence of God converging with my worship. Together, these five portray a moment of passionate encounter with God. An encounter of love so deep, words cannot adequately express it.
This first painting is the meeting point – convergence is the word I think of when I look at it. It expresses the joyous moment of seeing one another. The exhilarated greeting, the unrestrained laughter - as if two friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time suddenly caught sight of each other from a distance. This painting depicts the moment when we turn our attention towards God and He respond; it is the moment when His Spirit collides with our spirits in a moment of uncontainable love and excitement.
In this second painting, the exhilaration of the first painting dies down into the simple purity of love. It is the gentle whispers and the small glimpses of the depths of His love. It is a beckoning, an invitation to know the fullness of love that fills everything in every way. It depicts that moment after turning our attention towards Him and giving Him our affection where He says, “Come, let me show you more.”
This is the climax of the Passion sub-series. I think of rain when I look at this third painting or listen to the music it was derived from. It depicts an infilling of the sweet, warm, loving rain poured out on us by God, and yet, that rain is being poured out in a fiery tornado. This is the overwhelming, unrelenting love of God being poured out on us. The love that obstinately pursues, tenaciously champions, and selflessly sacrifices itself for its beloved. This is the love that no bounds can hold. It cannot be restrained, evaded, nor defeated. This love is strong. And yet, it is gentle. This love is sweet, kind, and compassionate. It tends to, cares for, and its thoughts are always turned towards its beloved. This love never-ending. This love is never-failing.
This fourth painting depicts the descent into intimacy. It is God pulling us into the deep places of His heart, revealing Himself in new ways. It is the wonder, excitement, and joy of the plunge. It is the overwhelming sensation of staring into God’s unfathomable goodness and glory. There is something humbling about being chosen by God to see these things. While God wants everyone to know Him deeply, only those who choose to be lovers and friends have the privilege of knowing Him intimately. I think we should feel the weight of that privilege. It is both honouring and humbling, and I never want to take it for granted.
This fifth painting is the conclusion of the encounter and mirrors the first painting. This is the moment when we take a step back after everything we’ve experienced and just sit in His love. It is us standing face to face with Him, eyes closed, holding hands, forehead to forehead – breathing in His sweet breath after a tender kiss. While the first painting depicts the excited joy of meeting, this painting depicts the quiet joy of intimacy. There is nothing else we can do after such an encounter, but sit back in wonder and awe, enjoying the sweet love He continues to wash over us. This is what it looks like to know and be known by God. This is true passion.