by Maddie

These are hands, sign language hands, to be more precise. And these hands spell out B E L O V E D Now, these innocent letters can be read two ways, and both ways act as bountiful truths to soothe our weary souls. ~BELOVED~ Meaning that we are treasured in the sight of our Savior. We are holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:4) and more precious than rubies (Proverbs 3:15). God created us and He instantly loved us. God, seeing us as His little children, seeing our futur

So I've been holding onto this painting for a while... this was an assignment for my class. And it was the most frustrating project I'd ever had to paint. Now, I'm not saying this to sound boastful, but I know that the Lord has given me a gift with art, with creating. And still, even with my talent, this thing challenged me to no end! Here's the lesson I'm trying to get at: no matter how "good" we are at something, we are not God. We are nowhere near His almighty power. And w

This drawing is made almost entirely out of ink dots. There's two meanings to this title; the first is that all the individual pieces are separate but come together to form an image of life. The Lord uses each dot to complete the image, similar to how each of us are needed in the Body of Christ for His mission to be accomplished. Second, all around the flower are heaps of dead leaves, broken off from their life source, from their trees. Without Jesus, we are like those leaves

This was a really tough poem for me to write, as I was writing it in the midst of a lot of anxiety and pain. I was able to channel that into this piece, relating myself to a bird that was overcome by frigid chains. I felt weighed down by my fear, just like the bird; but I had hope that God would redeem and relieve me, just like He did with the bird. This poem renewed my trust in God, and I hope it does the same for you.

This piece is about a little yellow bird's journey to freedom. With the help of a homely old man, the bird escapes her cage and the chains that hinder her. I really enjoyed crafting this story, as I was able to embody my own struggles into it. I am the bird, burdened by fear, and the rescuer is God, my ultimate Rescuer. This is a sweet little story, and I hope it inspires readers to receive the freedom that God offers to us.

This was my first writing assignment of college and I had to write about the impact books have had on my life. At the time of penning this paper, I was reflecting on my summer-- my life-changing summer. In the summer before college, I worked at an amazing camp for adults with special needs. This magical place is called Arrowhead Bible Camp, and my time there challenged me like never before. As I wrote about my experiences there, I was able to showcase how God used books to p