Doodle #128, Under an Orange Sunset

| Whitt’s End Art

I have lived in the Philly area for many, many years. While there is a lot of places I still love to visit within the city limits, I still don’t like the hustle and bustle of city life. I am a country boy at heart. Not to far out in the country but far enough the traffic is not bad. One thing about the city I like is the city skyline from different observation points. I especially like the view during sunset when the sky has an orange glow.  My doodle, “A Philly Sunset,” is a loose rendering of such a sunset.

When I was a new driver, at seventeen years of age, driving around Philadelphia was something I enjoyed. The city had many more places than the suburbs to frequent, like record stores, concert venues, shopping and much more. If I didn’t want to drive I could hop on the EL or subway and get to places I wanted. I spent many hours of my young life in Philadelphia. Thirty Four years ago I moved away from Philly. I now live about an hour away in the suburbs. I get down to Philly from time to time. It is where my son lives now so my wife and I visit one in a while

The weird thing is, like many things from my youth, Philly has lost it’s youthful luster. I guess it is because may of the places I frequented in my youth are not there anymore. Many of the people I knew are no longer there anymore. The city has changed so much over the years. I guess the old saying is true, “You can never truly go home again.” As a follower of Jesus Christ I am glad the Bible in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” It is good to know that no matter how much I change, the world around me changes, Jesus never changes.

Doodle #127, Don’t be a Wimpy (Sponge)

| Whitt’s End Art

Sponge is one of those words that has more than one meaning. it is a sea creature as pictured in my rendering, it is used for household cleaning as well as in a surgical procedure, but it is also a person who borrows stuff without the intent of giving the borrowed item back.

When I first saw sponges was today’s drawing prompt I thought of Wimpy from Popeye the Sailor Man. He is the guy who is famous for the line “I’ll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Wimpy was always begging for the burger with no intent of ever paying Popeye back.  When I was a kid I knew a lot WImpy like peers. Most of what they borrowed was free rides, “Take me to Philly and I will pay you for gas on Friday when I get paid.” The problem payday Friday never came.

Adulthood has brought it’s share of Wimpys to my life. My problem is I have to learn to say no to people instead of giving to people. The Bible is clear on this subject  Proverb’s 12:24, “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.” I have learned that by giving in to the Wimpys of life I am really doing them a disservice. If a person is always given what they ask for they will never learn to work for what they really need. Don’t get me wrong it is good to help someone out when they ask but if they make a habit of it, take stock of the situation and make sure they are not being a Wimpy.

If you don’t know who Wimpy is click here.

Doodle #126, Blackbird Bye Bye

| Whitt’s End Art

Today’s challenge was to draw, of course, a bird. Here is my offering, “Blackbird Bye Bye.” Birds are not one of my favorite things to sketch or draw. The reason is I never think I do them justice by my finished renderings. Sure they look like birds but never like the birds I set out to draw. I guess life also turns out the same way. When we are little we set out to draw our life one way. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher in the worst way. Instead, after high school, life added some lines of me going to work to earn some money. I intended to go back to school. Instead some more lines were added to my life drawing, me meeting someone and getting married.

My life drawing was still not complete. Some more lines were added and I ended up living somewhere I had never intended.  There I added some more lines to my life drawing. I gave my life over to Jesus Christ, finished my college education, with a degree I didn’t intend to have, and moved on from one layoff to another. A few years later and many more lines later I work at a school, no not as a teacher, but a teacher’s assistant. My life still hopefully has many more lines to go till it is a finished work and I am called home. Yet I reflect on the drawing and do not see the picture I intended to render but am secure in knowing no matter how I see my life, God sees it the way He intended to draw it in the first place.

Doodle #125, Yellow, The Color of All Things Bright

| Whitt’s End Art

Today is yellow day. No it is not a National Holiday is it on the list for the May 5th drawing prompt. I could have went in a lot of directions with this prompt like a piece of lemon meringue pie, a banana, a yellow flower, a sunset among many other yellow items.. In fact I actually drew a lemon but switched to the more, “Whimsical Girl with Kitten,” for today’s drawing instead.

Yellow has always been one of my favorite colors to paint or color with because it exudes warmth, brightness and happiness. Yellow has also been associated, in our society, with cowardliness. Hence the phrase, “You’re yeller because you won’t fight me.” I added a little Southern in there due to my heritage. Whatever way you choose to look at the color yellow remember this there are a lot of colors which would not exist without this primary color.

Life is kind of like the primary color yellow. It is filled with a lot of happiness and warmth and maybe a little cowardice but when you add other colors to it, life can be so much more. As a young man I had a lot of friends come and go in my life most of whom I didn’t stay in contact. Still those friends who I left behind are important to me because they mixed into my life and added something to my primary color which helped me be who I am today. So the next time you are with your friends thank them for mixing into your life and helping you paint a beautiful portrait. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

Doodle #124, The Bell Tolls One, Two, Three

| Whitt’s End Art

Today’s drawing is a doodle of a small town. The centerpiece of the doodle and the town is the bell. In years past towns used bells for all manner of things such as signaling there was a fire, a special event was starting and much more. In some old churches bells were used to signal each hour or the start of church. In the ancients telephones had bells which signified somebody was calling. The list of the uses for bells is a long one however the one bell which used to bring me the most excitement was the ice cream truck bell.

In the summertime a couple times a week my friends and I would anxiously wait to hear the peel of the ice cream truck. The louder it got the closer we knew we were to our favorite treats. The ice cream truck loomed large in our minds as the favorite part of summer. Well maybe hanging out and ice cream.

Now many, many, many years later I still like ice cream but now I have to get it from a store or ice cream shop. The thrill of the bells has faded into just a memory. The future does hold for me one more important bell, the proverbial bell which will call me home to my place in Heaven. The Bible says Jesus went back to prepare a place for me and one day I will reside there.

Doodle #123, Plowing the Still Hard Soil

| Whitt’s End Art

The drawing prompt for today is the word plow. The task was to draw something with a lot of shadow. I live near Lancaster, PA so I thought of a plow. The title of my primarily pen and ink drawing is “This Old Plow.” The Amish in Lancaster still use horse drawn plows to till the soil. It is interesting to watch as the farmer urges his team up and down  the fields. As the team moves along the plow digs deep gouges in the field,  The farmer can then go back and plant the seeds, which will spout into this years crop.

Today’s message is a simple one. As Christians we need to remember that God does the plowing of the heart. Our responsibility is to plant the seeds into the fertile soil then leaves the rest up to God to take care of. The sad thing for me as with all farming some seeds never sprout, others sprout but are not firmly planted so they do get the nutrients they need to grow and still others miss the mark and have soil to latch onto. Sound familiar it should. It is a paraphrase of the Parable of the Sower, Matthew 13:1-23.

 

Doodle #122, Three Coins in a Piggy Bank

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Don’t know why the image didn’t load but here is the picture.

Life is all about saving. It’s about putting a few coins away for the proverbial raining day. The problem is to many of us don’t. When I was younger I worked at several jobs which paid me a decent salary for the times. Some of the money I banked but most of it I spent of foolish things. As I look back on those days sure I had a good time but if I would have put some money away maybe today I would be set and ready for retirement. Alas I am not.

The Bible has many verses warning about the love of money and hoarding away stuff but tucked away in Proverbs is this verse in Proverbs 13:11, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” What Solomon is saying is this. The quicker you get your money the less you’re going to understand the value of saving but when you take a portion of your money, put it in an IRA or savings account the more the money will increase over time. I’ve spent a lot of money on a lot of things over the years but have little to show for all my wastefulness. If you’re reading this take the time to out some money away. You’ll be thankful for it later.

Doodle #121, Let Your Flashlight Be Your Guide

| Whitt’s End Art

When we were kids we couldn’t wait until it got dark outside. The reason, we couldn’t wait to play flashlight tag. Our versions of flashlight tag went something like this. The person who was it got the flashlight. His or her job was to find the people who were hiding and illuminate them with the light. The first person found was it in the next round. The only problem with wandering in the dark is you tend to run into things. No matter the dangers, flashlight tag still ranks up there as one of my favorite things to do in the summer.

The analogy of the flashlight is a simple one, light illumines our way, while darkness hides what we do. God is often referred as light in the Bible. The reason for followers of Jesus is simple. If we follow God then his Word, “Is a light to my path,” which means He illuminates the path I need to follow. God is also, “lamp unto my feet.” Just like in flashlight tag the one with the light can see where they are going in the darkness, while the rest are left to stumble.

God’s light provides for me a clear path where I can see the obstacles that come along as I walk and help me to navigate around them. I hope you like my drawing inspired by the word flashlight, entitled, “The Light Brings Color.”