Genesis 1 - In the beginning... God created

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 - Genesis 1:1

The creation story is one that seems to polarise opinion, even among Christians. Personally, I believe that it is not a completely literal account of how everything was created, but that the essentials (that God was the force breathing everything into being) are true. I have no problem reconciling science and the Bible, and no issue with what some people see as conflicting time scales over whether the Earth was created in a day or over tens of thousands of years. I think the best way to explain this is through a CS Lewis quote from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

“Do not look sad. We shall meet soon again."
"Please, Aslan", said Lucy,"what do you call soon?"
"I call all times soon" said Aslan; and instantly he was vanished away.”

God can all all times soon, and to Him there is no reason why He shouldn't call 13.7 billion years a day if He feels so inclined! Also, before the sun was created, how long was a day? It could have been as long as it needed to be.

I wanted to do a two-page spread for this chapter, as it covers so much in 31 verses.

For the first page - the first page I will see when I start reading the Bible - I wanted to do something different to what I usually do. I had some washi tape I had bought for using on Christmas cards, which was black with silver stars and moons across it. I know technically that 'in the beginning' there was nothing, but it seemed to fit with the theme of creation. I layered strips to create the background for the first page, then used a white gel pen to do the lettering 'In the beginning...'.

I got the idea for the images on the second page from a calendar I had, which had outline lettering with more detailed patterns inside than outside the letters. I drew a generic landscape in the background and added in stars, plants and fish inside the letters to try to represent different parts of creation. (I didn't include people in the picture as chapter 2 goes into more detail about how God created Adam and Eve). I used my Inktense pencils to colour in the images.

Bible flip through March to October part 2

I had a lovely blank page at the start of the New Testament to fill, so I wanted to do something to show the change from Old to New. The thing that leaped to mind straight away was 'a king is born' - what the New Testament is all about.
I painted the page with gold acrylic paint then added the text with black pen and used gel pens to colour the crown. I finished with washi tape along the edge so I could find the New Testament easily.

This was a page I did during Bible study on Isaiah 1..

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
A rebellious nation

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken:
‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’

Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

Why should you be beaten any more? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and bruises and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.

Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
‘The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord.
‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.

 - Isaiah 1:1-22

I wrote the warnings from the passage in the margin and chose to use the idea of dilution and scarlet sins for the background. The red colour is diluted as it flows down the page - not a literal translation of the idea but it reminds me of the passage - don't become diluted and that sins are 'red as crimson' if we refuse to make ourselves clean before God.

This was inspired by an inspirational picture I saw somewhere. When I was reading the passage from Genesis about Lot escaping from Sodom and Gomorrah it seemed to fit perfectly.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.’

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’

But Lot said to them, ‘No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favour in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it – it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.’

He said to him, ‘Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.’ (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

 - Genesis 15:15-26

Genesis 8:21-22 & 9:11-16 - God keeps His promises

The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” - Genesis 8:21-22

Sometimes things can seem to be completely out of control, and it's good to remember that we can rely on God's word. These verses are part of the story of Noah and the promise God makes to Noah immediately after the flood.

The second part of the promise is in the next chapter^:

I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” - Genesis 9:11-16

I love rainbows because they always remind me of this story and that God does keep His promises - we can rely on what He says and what He tells us He's going to do. It's very reassuring to know that even if we don't know what's going on, God does.

For the art I used my watercolour paints to create a very simple rainbow background and then did the lettering in the margin. I'd prepped my page with gesso, but missed a few bits around the edges. Fortunately the paint didn't bleed through, so the only result was that it looked a bit darker on the front of the page on the un-gessoed bits.