Tag: Great Lakes

Stepping into the Story – Madeline Island & As Waters Gone By

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Madeline Island. 

Sophia smiled as she tweaked the sun-shimmer on a wave with her brush. The oil paint, the canvas, the brush in her hand – she had loved them ever since they first came into her life when she was thirteen years old.

It wasn’t until a month ago that she loved the subject of this painting: Madeline Island rising out of the Superior waves.

As-Waters-Gone-ByOn the coffee table nearby sat the book that started it all. Sophia had won the book in a silent-auction gift basket. When she finally cracked the cover, she was delighted. By the end, she knew she had to do one thing. She simply had to visit this place called Madeline Island. 

So that’s what she did.

She sat in her car on the ferry – the closest her car would ever get to driving on water – with her bike stashed on the rack. Once on land, she drove past the historic homes and all around the fourteen-mile-long island. She noted the itty-bitty library, the school, and the School of the Arts with its red and white buildings. She biked where she could see sparkling Superior. She snapped photos for later use. Then she returned to LaPoint for ice cream, meandered in and out of shops and even sketched. The sun came and went with the clouds.

Now back at home with her easel and brushes and the island captured on canvas, Sophia smiled. What was it about the book that made her so want to be there – to step into the story? The whimsical, relatable characters? The descriptions of the natural beauty? The heartwarming sayings that she wanted to paint on the walls of her dining room? The meals the characters enjoyed that made her tastebuds dance? Those all had something to do with with it, but…

It had to be the hope that flickered on like the flame of her candle (purchased on the island). Maybe it was also the refreshing reminder that God uses peculiar people to do His work – people who are willing to do the works He has prepared for them. 

Yes.

That’s why she was here, doing this peculiar business of spreading color on canvas. Her work was to capture the beauty of the Master Artist, to inspire others to pause and wonder, to share what she saw so that others might see Whom she sought.

Or something like that. She was a painter after all, not a writer. 

 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”  ~I Peter 2:9-10 (KJV)

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” ~Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

 

A Visit to Raspberry Island Lighthouse

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Lynn sat on the shore of Lake Superior, musing over her visit to the Raspberry Island Lighthouse. 

Built in 1863, this lighthouse guided sailors along the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. Lynn had soaked in the stories along with the sun and Superior breezes. She could have gone without the biting flies. Must bring insect repellant next time.

Nasty insects aside, it had been a lovely excursion. The lively guide had given her several nuggets to think about, but at this moment she wondered what the lighthouse would say if it could speak for itself. Inhabited by light keepers (during the shipping season) and often their families and guests for over eighty years, surely the walls could share quite the history lesson. Perhaps a dramatic comedy. Also, Lynn realized, a tragedy or two. What were the breakfast conversations? Did the light keeper grumble when his assistants didn’t hold up to his own work ethic? How did the children spend their time on an island that was practically their own world? Did they wake during the night to make sure the light was still shining like their father did? 

Maybe she could find a book of the stories to take home.

Lynn watched the soft waves come in to shore, their lapping the backdrop to her thoughts. What scenes of life would the walls of her own home share if given the opportunity? They are always watching after all.

Lynn closed her eyes and smiled. God is always watching, too, beyond the four walls of my home, even in the remote places like this breathtaking bay in the greatest Great Lake.

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3, ESV)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

“If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139:9-10, ESV)