"But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you form the evil one." 2 Thessalonians 3:3

This past week I had the incredible opportunity to help 22 women learn to paint. And in doing so, I was asked by the amazing woman who put it together, to come up with something ‘Spring like’. I prayed, as I do every time I paint, that God would show me what He wanted them to see...then the creating began.

This painting was the result.

And while simple, the beauty He helps me to create around the cross gets me every time. The opportunity to see those 22 women create their own unique version of this painting was one that blessed me beyond explanation and one that I will never forget.

But I realized very quickly that God’s devotion for this week was not necessarily in that experience, but in the painting itself. You see God faithfully nudges me every single week to use my story...my weekly experiences...to write these devotions. He leads me throughout the week to the message that He wants all of you to hear.

And what He kept bringing me back to all week long as I looked at that painting, was the shadow of the cross. My eye was drawn to that shadow every single time. So I started thinking about what that means exactly, to live in the shadow of the cross, and it was extremely revealing.

When I think of a shadow, I think of protection. And isn’t it amazing that when we live in the shadow of the cross...when we choose to accept and follow Jesus, when we recognize what the cross means and live life accordingly, WE ARE PROTECTED! We are protected by His blood; we are protected by His love; we are protected by His sacrifice.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about that it just wrecks me. What an honor to be protected and loved so much by Him. What an honor to be given such a gift. One that I will never be worthy of, but yet He offers anyway.

So lets choose to move forward into spring, renewed and rejuvenated by the celebration of His rising. Lets choose to treat that protection as the honor that it is. Living life in a way that is worthy of the shadow of the cross and recognizing Him as the protector that He is. He is the only protection and the only renewal we need.

Galatians 2:20
Revelation 21:5