I Cannot Do It!

“I can’t sketch that.” Her look said it all. The three lunar craters simply looked too complicated. With the image “beamed” from the telescope to a monitor near the cabin kitchen table, I started guiding her through the steps of making outlines, getting the light areas, getting the dark areas, and working the ones in the middle. Children at certain ages have no fear and will try anything. When we get older, however, things change. So, when things seem too complicated or involved, we often back off.

Forty minutes later we had our sketches, and my new excited student and wife gazed at hers (the first image) with some amazement. She did it! She looked at mine and frowned at her attempt, but hers was very good. The process was new, the medium was new, and sketching as a whole was new to her. And, she was learning to observe: to look carefully, to look again, to notice details, and then notice some more.

A few months later on a long trip around the US, we found ourselves on the eastern edge of Preston, Idaho. It was the night of the full moon, and it had been a long day on the road before we reached the little hotel. But, the nearby mountains and a rising full moon were likely to present a beautiful scene on this clear dry night. So, we bundled up our little art kits, drove a mile out of town and stopped on the side of the highway to take in the view. The full moon had just risen. When I suggested we sketch earlier, she was excited and afraid at the same time. Now we were outdoors with a panoramic view of the plains, the mountains in the distance, and a rising full moon. She thought it just seemed like too much to take in. “Not so,” I said. “The process is nearly the same as what you have done before. We will do a general outline: notice the light and darker areas of both terrain and sky, observe how they contrast with the moon, and then add some detail and shading. She sat beside me, and we developed the scenes in about 40 minutes. (Hers is the second image.)

When you sketch, everything else becomes secondary except the scene to be observed. That is what must first happen. Then, the person learns to be patient, knowing that the repeated looks and steps will eventually yield a drawing. The scene often looks impossible to render until the steps are patiently executed. But the goal is always in front of you because you see it again and again. Even quick sketches capture details never seen at first glance, but the repetitive looks and actions begin to yield a person’s impression of the scene.

Consider the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 , Luke 8, and Mark 4. Jesus Christ points to the parable as being very important. In this parable He describes a farm field, which is the human heart. God is faithful to sow the word of the Kingdom in it, but the receptivity of the heart determines what will happen. The bad news is that regardless of the sown word of the Kingdom, it is generally rejected or unfruitful. There are three situations described. First, if the soil of a person’s heart is hard like rock, the seed is stolen. Second, a heart might accept the seed of the Kingdom a tiny bit , so it begins to grow. But there is so little soil in the heart and so little root in the Kingdom that a little trouble or offense stops any growth. The plant or the word of the Kingdom dies.  Last, the clamor of life (good and bad things) in the heart of a person eventually grow in importance so the word of the Kingdom is choked. No fruit is produced in the end.

The last part of the parable speaks of the word of the Kingdom in the heart of a person who fully accepts it. There is good soil present. A process begins that produces fruit over time.

Consider the little sketch story where I describe the first important step: to set one’s face fully to the task of observing the scene, letting nothing else interfere.  The farmer in the parable and the sketcher have to do the same thing: they devote themselves to the process of becoming fruitful. Nothing else is as important. One produces crops over a season; the observer produces a sketch of the scene over time. In the Kingdom, it takes patience and a process where the Lord is held first and most important. Then, with patience, fruitfulness is guaranteed. God guides the process and sees to it that fruitfulness occurs.

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My sketch of the craters and then the scene from Idaho follow.

The scene from Idaho: