feeling all artsy-fartsy...

Last night, our fam of five ate a quick dinner, then headed out the door to our local Art Hop. Art Hop is the third Thursday of the month, and all the downtown businesses stay open and offer refreshments for the locals who want to walk and shop. It's called Art Hop because there are some galleries downtown, and the other merchants try to have some sort of art emphasis. The bookstore had a book signing by a local author, and the guy performing live music at the tea house was our good friend, Joel.


I'd like to say we've been to every Art Hop this summer, but we haven't. Last night was our first, but definitely not our last. We had a terrific time, despite the fact that it was a very chilly Colorado evening. By very chilly I mean that my teeth were chattering the entire time.

Anyway, we sat outside and listened to Joel for about an hour. He did fantastic, and he only had to stop once to warm up his fingers! I guess it's kinda hard to strum a guitar when you can't feel your digits. We enjoyed his music, and it was wonderful to see so many of our friends from the church that we just said good-bye to. It was great to see them, but hard at the same time.

I haven't talked much about leaving our church because that happened around the time our computer crashed and I was offline for awhile. We loved our church and were very sad to leave. Nothing bad happened, we just felt like God was leading us to find something a bit closer to where we live...here in our little community. I think it's much easier to leave a church when you're miserable than when you're content there. Seeing our friends last night made me question whether or not we were doing the right thing. I know we are, but it feels hard and lonely right now, and seeing the old gang was a breath of fresh air! Our pastor and his wife were there too and I talked to them for awhile. They both told me that they think John should start a church...and believe me, he thinks about it...just not sure we're ready to dive into that pool quite yet.

After we got home and started to thaw out warm up a bit, I glanced up and noticed this...

Our friend, Kari, created it. At first I thought it was a painting, but it's really a collage...kind of a mixed media collage (I'm a bit illiterate in the world of art, but I think that might be the right term).

Isn't it amazing?

John led an art/faith small group at our church for a couple of years with Kari and her husband. He has had his eye on that piece forEVER! They moved to Denver this summer and he asked Kari if she would sell it to him. She did, and though we've had it for awhile, we finally got it hung up last weekend.

I LOVE it! I love the colors, I love the image, and most importantly, I love that it was created by our extremely talented friend.

I think of Kari when I walk past this piece. And that makes me think about church, especially the church that is so dear to my heart. And then I'm mindful of the One who holds all of us in His hand...no matter how close together or far apart we are, and for that I am grateful.