Here come the whole long slew of posts from Spring Break, during which period of time I had no computer...
[from Thursday, March 30th]
I'm so tired, I think I will just summarize my first day of our journey with the following:
8 hours of train rides, a morning torrential downpour, soaked jeans, snacking on fresh fruit, losing umbrellas :(, late trains, missing other trains, learning to navigate the London Underground, and drawing a random girl's portrait. Quite an eventful day for such a boring agenda...
Yucky rain that poured on us on the way to the bus station... :/
At least the rain stopped finally (though we were already on the train), and we got to see a rainbow over the coast of the North Sea on our way to Edinburgh :)
P.S. About the random girl's portrait. So I was drawing an old photo of my sister, and the girl sitting across from me asked if I could draw her. So. Random. And slightly unnerving. I mean, half the time a picture completely fails dismally and looks awful and I end up crumpling it up and throwing it away. So to be asked on the spot to draw someone...a little disconcerting. I mean, it's one thing to ask a random stranger to draw you a.......a tree, for example. If the stranger fails, there's no personal insult attached. It's just like, "Oh, sorry, I didn't make your tree look like a tree. That's okay, though, because I will just blame myself for sucking at drawing trees. I doubt--unless you're some freak tree hugger--you're going to take offense for its ugly leaves."
But with a person's portrait, well, if you make their nose ugly then it's kind-of a problem. You're not attacking a tree, you're attacking a stranger. Which I generally consider to be an unwise gesture.
Honestly, though, I'm glad I had the experience. The whole time I just kept silently praying, "God, give me your eyes to see the beauty--both on the surface and beneath it--of this girl, whoever she is, that I might glorify you in showing her how You see and love her deeply."
I have no idea if this girl was a Christian, or even if she believed in a god at all. But I am thankful that I met her, because for the first time I realized how I should be approaching this mundane, lazy hobby of mine. The depiction turned out alright; it wasn't perfect by any means (none of my drawings are anywhere near perfect), but it was decent, and I was thankful.
After Jess and I left that train, I realized I had no proof the encounter even happened. I never photographed the girl or the drawing before I tore it from my sketchbook; I never even learned the girl's name. Only the small torn piece of page still bound into sketchbook remains to remind me of the lesson God taught me through her today, and for that I will smile gratefully.
Lord,
I bow my head briefly now to pray for that girl. Lord, I'm sorry I never learned her name, but I know You know everything about her; past, present, and future, and I pray that You would bestow Your blessing on her life. I pray that You would be real to her, and that even if she does not know You now, that one day she might. Thank you, Father, for teaching me through her how to take even such a small task as a drawing, and find a way to glorify You in it. Lord, I know my little sketch is only a small, pathetic shadow of the amazing person you created in her, but I thank you for helping me in producing it. It's actually kind-of awesome, realizing that my drawings can't compare to the people they're supposed to represent; that they're just small echoes of the people they portray--but that's okay. It's okay, because it only shows how much more beautiful Your creations are.
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me "My grace is sufficient for you: my strength is made perfect in weakness."
I'm so tired, I think I will just summarize my first day of our journey with the following:
8 hours of train rides, a morning torrential downpour, soaked jeans, snacking on fresh fruit, losing umbrellas :(, late trains, missing other trains, learning to navigate the London Underground, and drawing a random girl's portrait. Quite an eventful day for such a boring agenda...
Yucky rain that poured on us on the way to the bus station... :/
At least the rain stopped finally (though we were already on the train), and we got to see a rainbow over the coast of the North Sea on our way to Edinburgh :)
Just one of the fifty thousand fun, funny, and just weird pictures Jessica and I took of ourselves while trying to avoid getting bored on our six hours of train rides
....And then the sun came out! Talk about bipolar weather...
Jessica was supposed to be reading her Scottish History book. Didn't really happen. Still hasn't, far as I know.
Sarah's flat on North Parade
The Avon River, right next to Sarah's flat
P.S. About the random girl's portrait. So I was drawing an old photo of my sister, and the girl sitting across from me asked if I could draw her. So. Random. And slightly unnerving. I mean, half the time a picture completely fails dismally and looks awful and I end up crumpling it up and throwing it away. So to be asked on the spot to draw someone...a little disconcerting. I mean, it's one thing to ask a random stranger to draw you a.......a tree, for example. If the stranger fails, there's no personal insult attached. It's just like, "Oh, sorry, I didn't make your tree look like a tree. That's okay, though, because I will just blame myself for sucking at drawing trees. I doubt--unless you're some freak tree hugger--you're going to take offense for its ugly leaves."
But with a person's portrait, well, if you make their nose ugly then it's kind-of a problem. You're not attacking a tree, you're attacking a stranger. Which I generally consider to be an unwise gesture.
Honestly, though, I'm glad I had the experience. The whole time I just kept silently praying, "God, give me your eyes to see the beauty--both on the surface and beneath it--of this girl, whoever she is, that I might glorify you in showing her how You see and love her deeply."
I have no idea if this girl was a Christian, or even if she believed in a god at all. But I am thankful that I met her, because for the first time I realized how I should be approaching this mundane, lazy hobby of mine. The depiction turned out alright; it wasn't perfect by any means (none of my drawings are anywhere near perfect), but it was decent, and I was thankful.
After Jess and I left that train, I realized I had no proof the encounter even happened. I never photographed the girl or the drawing before I tore it from my sketchbook; I never even learned the girl's name. Only the small torn piece of page still bound into sketchbook remains to remind me of the lesson God taught me through her today, and for that I will smile gratefully.
Lord,
I bow my head briefly now to pray for that girl. Lord, I'm sorry I never learned her name, but I know You know everything about her; past, present, and future, and I pray that You would bestow Your blessing on her life. I pray that You would be real to her, and that even if she does not know You now, that one day she might. Thank you, Father, for teaching me through her how to take even such a small task as a drawing, and find a way to glorify You in it. Lord, I know my little sketch is only a small, pathetic shadow of the amazing person you created in her, but I thank you for helping me in producing it. It's actually kind-of awesome, realizing that my drawings can't compare to the people they're supposed to represent; that they're just small echoes of the people they portray--but that's okay. It's okay, because it only shows how much more beautiful Your creations are.
Amen.
[ This was the drawing of my sister I was doing when the girl asked if I'd draw her portrait.]
[ This was the drawing of my sister I was doing when the girl asked if I'd draw her portrait.]2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me "My grace is sufficient for you: my strength is made perfect in weakness."
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