I love it when encounters with different people seemingly come together to create a whole. I was painting at Fresh Streams conference earlier this year when someone described a scene they imagined I had paintied. It stuck with me and I decided to try and capture what they had described. They had seen the presence and power of God fall upon us when we 'looked up' to God.
As I finished up the painting one of the leaders of the conference shared a word: Yaddah. A word I hadn't heard before but which is a Hebrew word that invites us to raise our hands in thanksgiving. YADAH - pronounced "Yaw-daw" (Hands to God).
The Hebrew word comes from two root words. YAD which means the open hand, direction, and power. And AH which has reference to Yahweh. (The name for God.)
Together they are rendered Hands to God. It carries the meaning of absolute surrender as a child does to a parent - "pick me up, I'm all yours."
I finished up the painting and emphasised the stretched hands as much as I dared to!
The painting was created using pastels, acrylic paints and spray paint.