Crowned with Love

Hostas reign in our garden.  Their lavish leaves of green create an oasis for the eyes during the hot summer months. Sporting colors of celadon, chartreuse, pistachio and lime in their full skirts of leaves, they just seem to be dancing while the rest of the garden fizzles away under the sun.

How do they do it? How do they stay so fresh and green under the heat?

They have a secret. They start out by being “crowned” with life- giving water each morning. Shortly before sunrise, the tips of their leaves and buds receive an infusion of life-giving water. Little water crowns fill them with loving, tender, droplets of moisture that settle on their heads and change their world.

You can be crowned with this kind of love each day too.  Really. It’s an open offer from a tender hand.  Just listen to it:
“He crowns you with love and mercy – a paradise crown.”  Psalms 103:4
             
Like the hostas, you’ll be strengthened to flourish, regardless of the heat that may surround you. 
Let the master gardener of your soul crown you today with love and tender mercy. Spend some time with Him each morning and soak up the life-giving water He supplies. Like these little hosta flower buds, you’ll be lifting  your head up with renewed strength, and you’ll begin to reign in life.

The Velvet Lime Girls


Photo by James Rhodes

Prince of Peace

Prince of Peace. It’s the second piece in our descriptive name & crown series we created and one of our favorites. Most people understand the concept of a Prince, but the definition of peace is quite inspiring when you go back and look at the original Hebrew word. The word is shalom. It’s meaning encompasses much more than calm peace. Like a mother gathering up all her children in her arms and carrying them away to a safer place, when shalom is spoken, it extends an embrace of complete wholeness to the recipient. It gathers up meanings of good welfare, health, safety, soundness, tranquility, harmony, absence of discord, favor, prosperity, rest, and well being and carries them into the life of the receiver. The expression of shalom brings them to a place where things are made whole … nothing missing, nothing broken, a place of restoration.

That’s the kind of peace that comes when the Prince of Peace arrives in your life. Regardless of your situations and surroundings, His presence, the very meaning of His name, brings a change. Brings wholeness. Brings Shalom.

“He will be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6

The Velvet Lime Girls

King of kings

This artwork came out of our hearts a couple years ago and we thought it was fitting to share it again as we prepare to celebrate Christmas.

Names say a lot about a person. Parents often spend months selecting a name that will convey the essence of all their hopes and dreams for that child. They know names are important. It’s the manner in which a child will be addressed and referred to for life and often serves as a remembrance long after they are gone.

Sometimes a person can have a descriptive name that kind of sums up what their life is all about. Thoughtful Thomas, Caring Cathy, Insightful Ian, Wise William … you can easily add to the list.

But a descriptive name like the King of kings is an entirely different category. You’ll notice the dictionary even points out that when using this phrase in reference to Christ, that the first King is to be capitalized. It denotes an authority that is higher than any king in history. The KING of kings.

We wanted to weave the historical record of this King’s birth in the background of our artwork, wash it in a symbolic red glaze and crown it with a reference to His royal lineage. We love the way Marybeth took all these ideas and distilled them into this creative birth announcement/name declaration that creates a powerful remembrance.

We have a few more descriptive names we captured in artwork and we will share them over the next few days. Come back and be inspired this week, as you see just how powerful a name can be.

The Velvet Lime Girls