“Mary’s Garden” by Jen Norton. 24×24″ Acrylic on Canvas, $3000
This painting started out as a whimsical piece about Mary walking in her rose garden. But sometimes our best-laid plans just won’t fly and we have to change course. I think I started over from scratch at least 3 times. Somehow—a complete surprise to me—the final painting turned into a mandala of roses, accompanied by the mysteries of the rosary, with a well of life-giving water in the middle. In the end, I felt called to add a child to the Living Water…perhaps the Christ child, or perhaps any child. Mary is, after all, the mother of each of us.
This piece calls for some commentary about the sanctity of life, but that’s hard to do without falling down the rabbit-hole of politics, where one must pick a side, each with judgements, contradictions and motives that are anything but life-affirming. The problem is that politics is for defining large groups of people.
But God doesn’t look at us in large groups. He looks beyond country borders and the frustrations of healthcare plans. He sees us one at a time, each a beautiful flower, spoken into being. We live outside the walls of that garden where the ground can be dry and life, precarious. But we are offered glimpses into its beauty through challenges and unexpected blessings, through strangers we welcome, friends we help and kind words spoken. Our hearts and worlds are expanded when we are open to Life.
It’s a nice illusion to think we have control over everything. But like this painting, sometimes we must trust God when He either allows or wills something that upends our current course. As people of faith, we are called to trust in something higher than ourselves. Love asks us to consider that our lives are not our own, but part of an eternal plan. And if we forget, we have Mary, in the feminine wisdom of the rosary, to remind us of who we should follow.
“Mary’s Garden” original painting is available at The Sacred Art Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. Contact geri@thesacredartgallery.com.
