A Light unto my Path
Were you scared of the dark as a child? Did you leave your bedroom door ajar, or a lamp on? I think the dark has scared most of us at some point. I remember needing the landing light on and the door ajar when I was little.
My husband and I recently went on holiday with a friend, staying in a cottage in Pembrokeshire. We had a lovely week. One thing I noticed in particular was how dark it got in the Welsh countryside at night, as the nearest town was at least ten minutes’ drive away. At home, there’s a streetlight right outside and we don’t have the best curtains, so a little amber light seeps through. Not enough to disturb me, but I really noticed the pitch dark of night in the cottage.
The theme of darkness and light is profound right across the Bible. From God bringing darkness to light in the creation of the world in Genesis 1, to Jesus coming as light into darkness in John 1. Later on in John, Jesus declares Himself to be the light of the world (John 8:12). He says that whoever follows Him ‘will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’
The theme of light is also in the book of Psalms. Particularly one verse, Psalm 119:105:
“Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”. This again picks up on the idea of God’s light guiding us and light being hope in the darkness.
My latest sketch
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I’ve recently got back into sketching. The idea of Psalm 119:105 and God’s light on the lamp on the path really struck me. So, I drew this sketch!
A note that the idea of the composition is not entirely mine, as I used a Dreamstime stock image for reference. However, I’ve tried to change it quite a bit and make it my own.
Though I thought I’d finished the sketch a couple of weeks ago, I spent a couple of hours yesterday working on it, especially darkening the shadows in between the trees. Hope you enjoy it!
Did the dark scare you as a child? Do you find the idea of light hopeful? Feel free to drop a comment below, I’d love to connect with you!
Tune in next week when I hope to blog about my next artwork, a sketch I did for my husband while we were in Pembrokeshire.
PS my newsletter is still paused, so please ignore the popup for the free novel. If you’d like my historical mystery novel ‘The Oak Tree Calls’, get in touch (details on my contact me page) and I’ll email you a copy. You can also find details of my books here.
See you next time,
Maria 😊