My Hiding Place
Reference Photo for “My Hiding Place”. Taken by Julia McFarland on a walk in the Mississippi Delta, Autumn 2024.
It all began as a leaf study. During one of my walks in the Mississippi Delta, I encountered a Nandina domestica 'Fire Power' plant bursting with color, and it literally stopped me in my tracks. I snapped a picture, determined somehow to capture its beauty and depth of color. An artist friend of mine had recently introduced me to watercolor pencils, and through her encouragement, I embarked on the challenge of blending and mixing these amazing leafy colors.
As I was finishing the drawing, I decided it would be fun to add an unexpected element that could be discovered by the viewer. Thinking of the many times during my walks that I’d been startled by birds entering and exiting the foliage beside me, I remembered that bushes are great hiding places for many of God’s creatures, including the winged variety. And wouldn’t this particular bush provide excellent camouflage for a colorful bird?
Yellow Warbler Reference - Photo credit: Blogspot Blogger: Kelly; “Red and the Peanut: The last bird of the evening…”
Researching birds in the Mississippi Delta, I settled on adding a male American Yellow Warbler to my drawing. His lemon-yellow coloring with rust-colored markings was exactly what I was looking for. Warblers are often found fluttering through bushes in marshy, dense vegetation - searching for insects and caterpillars to eat. So I added him in, tucking him under some leaves, a perfect place for him to hide, blending in with his surroundings.
“My Hiding Place” - Wildlife Whispers - 2024 Colored Pencil and Watercolor Pencil on Fabriano Acquarello Watercolour Paper - by Julia McFarland
This caused me to think about hiding places: they can be good or bad. They are good fun when we are playing hide-and-seek as children, or when we need some quiet time to reflect and rest, but they can be bad when, out of fear, we begin to hide from responsibilities, from social activities, or from God.
However, there is a way to emerge out of the “bad” kind of hiding. By deciding to face our fears and surrender ourselves, our circumstances, and our consequences to God, we can experience renewed strength, restored relationships, and forgiveness in His presence. His presence is our “new” hiding place, our “good” hiding place, where we find safety, peace, joy, and protection.
King David illustrated both types of hiding places when he wrote Psalm 32. After he committed adultery with Bathsheba, got her pregnant, and had her husband murdered to cover his sin, He hid from God’s presence, but in doing so, he tells us in verses 3-4:
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
However, though David was hiding, God was seeking. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. Faced with his sin, David decided to come out of “hiding” and agree with God about what he had done. And wonderfully, he found forgiveness. Verse 5 says:
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Oh, the joy of forgiveness! True freedom means coming out of hiding and resting instead in God’s presence, safely protected from anyone or anything that wants to destroy us. David continues in verses 6-7:
Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.
You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
That is what this drawing represents for me. God is my hiding place, my safe deliverance from all my past mistakes, and gratefully, my future ones. I know I can safely abide and hide in His presence, surrounded by His songs of deliverance.
May this drawing remind you of God’s forgiveness, deliverance, safety, and protection. He searches for the lost (Luke 19:10); He brings back the strays (Ezekiel 34:16); and He surrounds us with songs of deliverance.
“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” - Psalm 32:7 (NIV)