During covid lockdowns I found myself wondering ‘where is home?’ I felt far from family but knew that Auckland, where I grew up, was no longer my home.  I also still felt like I was a visitor in Taranaki.  The seed of an idea for a painting was planted.

I knew that I wanted to have Auckland’s Rangitoto Island in the design as well as Mt Taranaki.  I was searching for bible verses with references to mountains and I came across Psalm 90:1-2 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.  Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”  This led me on a different tangent.  This Psalm is the earliest one written and it was composed by Moses.  He would have written it sometime during the 40 years of wandering in the desert with the Israelites after God brought them out of slavery in Egypt. I got thinking about the next part of the story and how the Israelites entered into the promised land with their new leader Joshua.

The verse that I stencilled is Joshua 1:9 which I held onto when we made our move to Taranaki, which I often have thought is our own ‘promised land’ after our years of wandering.  When mulling over the idea for this painting, the Holy Spirit counselled me that my home is with God, it’s not a region or city.  The verse ‘Lord, you have been our dwelling place……’ went over and over in my mind, and in the painting became ‘Lord – you are my home.’    Since God has said in His word that he will be with me wherever I go, then my home will be wherever I am as He is my home.  God was with me in the past in Auckland, He is with me in the present in Taranaki, and one day in the future my eternal home will be with Him forever in Heaven.

As for some of the symbolic references: there are three heart strings going from Taranaki to Auckland which represents me, my husband and our youngest adult daughter who lives with us.  We all have heart ties to Auckland.  As to the painting surface, I commissioned a local company to sew a small tarp as it is to represent our different moves over the years.

I chose to paint rough sea between Auckland and Taranaki because of three bible stories that included rough seas and needing faith in God’s presence for their journey to get through to the other side.  The first story is in Exodus 14: 26-31 when Moses and the Israelites crossed the red sea.  The second is in Joshua chapter 3 when Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordon River to get to the promised land.  The third story is in Mark 4:35-41 when Jesus was with his disciples on lake Galilee and He calms the storm while they were sailing to the other side of the lake.