Get Ready.

Beautiful Garden - 30”x 48”, Acrylic on canvas, ©2025, Elise Ehrenholz.

I love the rudimentary colours of this painting. They are very much something a small child would use. I keep going back to them. There feels like there is so much life in them. Did I tell you that my favourite thing about Kindergarten was art? We did it when we first arrived right after lunch, promptly at 1 p.m. We were encouraged to draw or paint whatever we wanted. My basic drawings were of people, they were all profiles, maybe one day I will show you. My Mum probably thought they were very special. I remember the brushes too, and how we were told not to wash them in hot water because it would make the bristles fall out. So, there we were, crowding around the old white enamel sink in the back hallway washing our brushes out as best as our five-year-old little hands could manage. Clearly Mrs. D wasn't trusting us with the crème de la crème of brushes. We did our best. It must have been good enough. Isn't it funny what we remember. I guess it stood out to me for a reason. Must have been meant to be a part of my life for here I am all those years later still cleaning out brushes, not washing them in hot water. Memories, connection, they shape us. How powerful they can be. It must be too why I have kept coming back to this canvas. There was something more to be revealed here, found here. The first incarnation was a tree that was surrounded by beautiful flowers. It didn't even come close to what I saw in my mind's eye that one day in church the first time I saw it, but at the time I felt I had captured it, and it stayed that way for years. Then one day I felt inspired and it became something else. The flowers mostly became like musical notes and somehow that captured the feeling of the dancing ones of my imagination. I liked it, but there was something more that I needed to find, so I went looking for it, pausing every now and then to see if it felt right. There is always a sense of hesitation for me when I paint over a completed piece. What if I am making a horrific mistake? And then there comes the thought of, "What if it's better?" And so I put paint to canvas to discover its third and final transformation.

I started with a sky-blue colour and it seemed to cleanse the busyness of previous efforts, effectively putting them aside. Immediately I knew I had gone in the right direction. I was tempted to leave it that way with only the texture from the layers of previous work showing through. I have come to appreciate that kind of texture. The kind that shows that other decisions were made with confidence. They aren't mistakes as I used to profess, now just effort with time passing over them. Then the brighten up came, yellows and oranges and greens. It felt like a kind of cross pollination. Old contrasting with new. Proper contrasting with spontaneous. There was a temptation to make the top newer part very much like the bottom portion but somehow that felt as if I was devaluing the more spontaneous work that way. It was just as valuable as the bottom portion even if it was done in a less metered way. It needed to be distinct and so I decided to keep them mostly separate in form, integrated just enough. It was then that the meaning of the painting started coming forth as well. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. All those new flowers, they were wild, but just as lovely as the ones in the more tended garden. They were all flowers after all. The first flowers were part of a more foundational garden that had been planted long ago. Did they fit into that space better? It seemed that way, hadn't it? And yet, the truth of it is that there was always space for those blooms that tended to float in on a breeze, they just hadn't arrived yet. This painting represents the family of God, those who say yes to Jesus. It's like the melding of seemingly two different groups of people really, they are just old and new believers with the new ones just arriving on the scene, all belonging. They had never found their rightful place until now, until Jesus. Their untamed beauty and strength making the garden and the family of God complete. The meaning behind this work just had me breaking down and I'm so glad for it because then I know I've hit the mark for this piece of art. What I want is for you is to feel, just as I do when I'm doing the work, that there is absolutely no space between you and God at all. It was always meant to be this way. I want my work to be like love letters from God in some way, right to your heart, letters transcending every and any boundary. When we truly realise how much we are loved by God and just how kind He truly is, it undoes us in such a profound and beautiful way. Everyone should know this kind of love. It makes us shimmer.

My time in my studio is an extremely personal space filled with very personal moments. I'm really feeling it all when I'm painting. I'm really feeling the presence and heart of God. I can tell you as someone who has lived outside of the church experience that there is nothing that can hold you back from getting so close to God except you choosing not to. If you are a person, the gospel is for you. You can get on the path and start growing up with God, His love for you is never wavering. Perhaps you feel like too many years have passed to belong to Jesus, or perhaps you are too awkward or loud or weird or brash or whatever, literally fill in the blank _______! I can tell you from personal experience as one who does things wrong, says things wrong, over shares, rants about things, is a highly sensitive person, freaks out, that you are definitely not too much for God. Actually, He loves you just as you are today, right now, flaws and all. Have you ever read some of the New Testament? Some of those believers were absolute train wrecks! Seriously they were making some shocking decisions and yet they were still under the blood, born again, forgiven. Mystery upon mystery, right with God the Father through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Today could be the day that you arrive in God's garden to be one of His precious Kinders. It can't come soon enough. You could be one of the first in a wave to come home to Jesus if you haven't already because I feel like God is saying, "Get ready. The wildflowers are coming."

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."- Galatians 3:26-29.

"So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the labourers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.' And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had recieved it, they complained against the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you." - Matthew 20:8-14.

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” - Romans 10:9-10

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” – John 6:29

Keep stretching your hands out to God dear hearts. Pour your heart out like a waterfall to Him. The road has surely been rough, but we are mighty in Him. Praise you Jesus. You did it all.