Lauri Hawley

Harmony

I grew up in the olden days of hymnals and four-part-harmony congregational singing. Almost everyone knew how to read music, and if not, they just stuck with the melody. When someone got off-pitch, the dissonance was painful to hear.

Many years later, I’m dabbling in watercolors, learning about warm and cool colors, and which harmonious ones create lovely new colors when mixed together. I painted these lovely leaves from my warm color mixing palette, and I love how earthy they are!

While having both warm and cool colors in the same painting can create wonderful contrasts, mixing them can lead to muddy messes. Sometimes, though, a muddy color is just what a painting needs to create shadows! Shadows build depth in a painting, but they are not usually what draws the eye.

The psalmist writes, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). Followers of Jesus have the same heavenly Father, making us brothers and sisters, and there should be a strong family resemblance of love, righteousness, peace, and joy evident to a watching world. Our lives as a community should stand out because we’re so different. When there is harsh dissonance within the family of God, it hurts our testimony. Who would want to be part of that?

Harmony with others requires humility. While we can respectfully disagree with one another, we can’t always have our own way or think our perspective and conclusions are the only correct ones. Constructive conversations bring light to differing viewpoints and can add depth to our understanding, but they must not create disunity in the Body of Christ.

Paul had great advice for the church in Philippi:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:1-4

That sounds a lot like harmony to me.

This post is written in response to Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday link-up. These prompts are fun to respond to, and only take five minutes to compose. Today’s prompt: HARMONY.

Bury

Snow is falling again and burying my flower garden, but I know that spring is coming. It will soon be time for planting and watering, waiting for sprouts to break through the soil. Most of them would be eaten by birds if not covered with a layer of dirt. If the seeds aren’t buried, how can I expect new flowers to grow?

Benediction

A blessing, especially at the end of a religious service. If I had to guess, its roots are something like “good words.”

Longing

Today I started a watercolor design experiment using soapy, clean dishwater bubbles. I got to be a kid again, blowing through a straw and making a bubbly mess!

Cold

I’m so old that I remember when going outside in the cold meant you would catch a cold! I recently recovered from my yearly knock-me-down cold. Getting it every year in winter would seem to support the cold weather→sick cold hypothesis. Just in case, I’ve painted some oranges and berries to remind you to stay stocked up on your Vitamin C!

We know better these days. We know there have to be germs around first. But today’s extreme cold could certainly wear down a body’s defenses so that germs could settle in for a spell! An extreme cold warning is in effect in our area, with wind chills to -25°F (-31°C). Frostbite could happen within 30 minutes.

Unusual

I’ve been painting daily this month as part of a challenge to be creative for 31 days in a row. Today’s watercolor creation called for layers upon layers. Each layer left out one more piece of the puzzle.

Watercolor painting of diamond shapes on hills

With each new color layer, I was surprised with the result!