How Hands of Praise Came to Be

It all began back in September 2002. No -- wait -- actually, it began back in June 2002. Well -- come to think of it -- it was probably more like March 2002. Of course, the argument could be made that it was more like April 1974. Or, perhaps, August 1953. Hmm… the fact of the matter is that its TRUE beginnings were before time itself. Let me attempt to put this into some sort of chronological order.

In August 1953, I was born. Early in my childhood, it became apparent to those who knew me most closely that the one thing for which I lived was drawing. I drew on paper as fast as my parents could provide it, and, when they failed to do so, I drew on the walls and any other flat surfaces I could find. In high school, art was my major, and French was my main elective. My dream was to live on the Left Bank of Paris and be a painter. Well, things did not quite work out that way. God had other plans for me.

In April 1974, after about four years of reading the Bible, the Lord began to draw me to Himself. This began to change my life in ways too numerous to list on this web page. If you would like to read my testimony, send me an e-mail, and I will be glad to send it to you. However, for now I best heed the advice of my former English teachers, who would admonish me to "avoid being verbose" and to "stick to the main idea" which, need I remind you, is "How Hands of Praise Came to Be."

In March 2002, after perusing the AOL (America On-Line) discussion boards, I came upon one in the general category of Christian theology. I spent about five months on that board, on and off, debating the finer points of Scripture with a number of other regulars to that board. During that time, I actually forged a couple of truly wonderful friendships.

In June 2002, I shared with one of these on-line acquaintances something I had received from reading the Old Testament. We began to praise the Lord together and would often check on each other now and then to see how things were going. We also would ask each other for prayer and would pray for each other.

In September 2002, this particular brother in Christ confided in me that he was very upset over the realization that one of the lines he was selling in his family's gift shop was created by an artist who (he had found out) was a Wiccan. He was on a search for a new artist and asked me to pray along with him that he would find one. I did, and within a couple of days he found another artist whose work was much less dark than the previous artist's. He had sent me a link to her website, and I took a look. Well, it turned out that she was also involved in a philosophy that ran contrary to Christianity, so he asked me once again to pray with him. Before going to bed that night, I did.

The next morning, when I woke up, I prayed once again as I sat on the edge of the bed. While in prayer, this thought came to me. "Why don't YOU do it?"

I thought, "Me? How could I do it?" The next few thoughts went back and forth, as if they were between the Lord and me.

"Why NOT you? I gave you this gift of artistic ability as a child. When will you use it to glorify Me?"

"Well, yes, but how could I do that? I am busy homeschooling my two children."

"You don't do that on the weekends."

"No, but weekends are for boating with the family."

"It is September, and boating season is almost over. You have the whole winter."

"But I have no ideas."

"The six days of Creation..."

"Yes, a set of six... mugs... each with different artwork to represent each day in the creation week. Well, okay. But I don't know how to get the artwork onto the mugs!"

Hmmm... nothing... no answer. At that point, I concluded that I was just to draw the pictures, and the rest would come later.

So, I set about to draw representations of the six days of Creation. I decided to use the computer to draw them, and I used a couple of different graphics programs (switching back and forth to take advantage of each one's features) to create each picture. I drew days one through five in less than two months. When I hit day six, I was stumped. How would I draw every land animal that ever lived AND man and have it all fit on a mug? Besides, now it was getting close to the holidays, and things were getting busy. So I suspended this project for a while.

After the holidays passed, in February 2003, the idea finally came to me. I began to draw day six. I completed it in early March.

In late March, I was visiting a friend of mine to inquire about various kinds of work that I could do from home, and I told her my idea and that I had drawn the artwork already. Her jaw almost hit the floor as she shared with me her idea for putting homeschool-themed artwork onto mugs and that she was thinking of buying the equipment. The only problem was that she did not have a good idea for the art. We were both awestruck as we realized that this had been laid right in our laps. As I gave more detail, it was further confirmation that she really liked my idea for the six days of Creation. She asked me if I could scan the pictures and e-mail them to her. Well, of course, as I drew them on the computer, I didn't need to scan them. I went home that afternoon and e-mailed the art to her. She loved it. When I shared this with the brother who had originally requested the prayer, he was ecstatic. Frankly, so was I.

Well, my friend bought the equipment, and we began to make samples. Our very first samples comprise the set that you see featured on the Mugs Page. As we showed people the samples, the reactions were consistently positive. I believe that there is only one explanation for this, and it has to do with He Who is in control.

I do hope that you have enjoyed my sharing with you this testimony of how I ended up producing artwork for giftware. I truly give the Lord all the praise and the glory for this, as it His Masterpiece, His Creation, that inspired my meager attempt to celebrate His awesome greatness and limitless power.

Hallelujah! Praise You, O Lord.

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