A Wedding Present

On Thursday night my son Brock flew in from Florida to be the best man at his best friend's (Jake) wedding. They've been friends since high school. Brock wanted to give a painting for the wedding present. He doesn't paint, so guess who got to paint it?

He'd been talking about it for several weeks but we never nailed down the subject matter for the painting. So on Wednesday we decided to do something that might be meaningful to Jake. He had proposed to his girlfriend while on a trip to Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. So I thought maybe I could paint an olive tree and find a scripture to go along with it. However, I didn't get around to painting it and I talked Brock into giving Jake something already painted. Brock seemed a little disappointed, so this morning I decided I would give the olive tree a go. I am not a landscape painter by any means, so it is always a stretch for me to do this type of subject matter.

It took me most of the day and then I framed it, put a big bow on it and it was ready for the reception this evening. The scripture I found for it was in Psalms 52:8.
'But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.'

I often like to use symbolism in my paintings so I looked up the meaning of olive tree. It stands for peace, strength and prosperity. Good things to wish for a newly married couple. I hope it will also remind them of the day they were engaged.

So... busy day.