Acrylic on canvas 36” x 48”

I painted this image while David Ruis was leading worship during the Vineyard Prayer Summit in Edmonton, 2015. The main part of this painting was done during the early part of worship where some of the songs spoke of the storm and wind. I was thinking of this as I painted. If you flip the image over, you can see what looks like wind, waves, and the sail of ship heeled over in the wind. Some wind and some storms have felt too strong. Many have been on this journey a long time. They [we] wonder if we have missed anything. David's music was reassuring. [Turn the painting back over.] The embrace is received. Do you see the slight hesitation? The hand is in the air and in another split second will complete the embrace. But it is in this gesture, with the hand not yet returning the hug that suggests that it has been a long time coming. The word that comes to me from this has come as an encouragement. For those of us who have not given up, the love of the Father for you is unrelenting; the next part of the book [not a chapter] is opening. This embrace may even come to us in the storm, but after all we have been through, we still believe.