The Joy of Studying Your Child

Share Now

When my friend Ella told me that Miss Judy was having a painting class on Wednesday afternoons, I was thankful for the opportunity. However, I had no idea what joy was coming my way. I’m not afraid of painting anymore. I love to do it.

A new joy came to me when I did the painting of our barn. I learned then that I especially love to paint real things that are part of my life’s experience. I’ve been looking at that barn and the trees around it since 2003. While painting it, I enjoyed looking closely and trying to reproduce its details.

When the time came to start my next painting, I decided to paint one of the flamingos that our daughter and her family and Ray and I saw at the Nashville Zoo in March. I finished it this past Wednesday.

This is my photo from the zoo, which I used as a guide.

Spending hour after hour on a painting gives you an opportunity to look at familiar objects with fresh eyes. Now, when I see this photograph, I remember trying to recreate the various shapes and colors. Before, a flamingo was a beautiful large bird of pink or orange with a long, thin, flexible neck and tall stilt-like legs. Now I see the the various shades of the feathers and the shape beneath them, the gray and pink legs and feet, the black strip that goes down the beak, the velvet neck feathers . . .

At first glance, it seems that art is about hands and tools, such as brushes and paint. However, our eyes are perhaps even more important than our hands. Artists must really see an object, the object as a whole and the multiple parts that make up that whole. An artist must see and study closely before she or he can paint.

When a mama homeschools her children, she has the opportunity—and the joy—to study her child. No wonder homeschooling results in so much success.

When we go to see a doctor, we don’t want to be treated in the exact same way as the patient before or after us in the appointment schedule. We want the doctor to examine us closely with his eyes, his ears, and the appropriate medical equipment in order to determine exactly what treatment we need, or better yet, that we don’t need any treatment at all.

An artist studies his or her subject. A mama studies her child. And God studies us. What a comfort that is.

Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, Lord, You know it all.
Psalm 139:1-4

Share Now