You can always rely on a friend; when you are in a bad way, he is like a brother to you. 

- The Bible, Proverbs 17:17

Having true friends is truly a blessing from heaven! So far there have been two situations in my life where I have experienced the truthfulness of the Bible verse above. The first situation was three and a half years ago when I crashed my bike and needed help washing and dressing myself for a few days and weeks. Fortunately, I had a really great roommate at the time who took good care of me. 

The second event was this year. As in the penultimate post I was in hospital for a few weeks in March this year. The hospital was in Munich, which is about an hour's drive away. An elderly couple from my church congregation kindly offered to drive me to the hospital and pick me up again. 

When I was picked up, I was immediately treated to a delicious potato soup. However, I didn't realize that the pot was made of ceramic. When I tried to heat the soup, it shattered and the soup spilled all over the stove. I was incredibly embarrassed. 

I also had another mishap. Freshly arrived home, I felt like making myself a pizza. Full of joy, I measured out all the ingredients for a wholemeal spelt yeast dough and put them in the bowl. In the end, the only thing missing was the yeast. I was firmly convinced that I still had some dry yeast in the cupboard, but it was a yawning emptiness. I went to all the supermarkets in the area, but there was no yeast to be found anywhere - neither dry nor fresh. I didn't want to believe it! The supermarket shelves had been plundered! People seemed to be expecting the end of the world, but it was just a flu virus that was hitting our country. Anyway, I called my dear friend whose pot I had broken and she shared her last packet of dried yeast with me.  

But that wasn't all: a short time later, I developed massive problems with my cardiovascular system, triggered by incorrect medication. I had never felt so bad in my life. I was afraid of collapsing and lying unconscious all alone in my apartment. As my GP told me to take care and call an ambulance if necessary, I decided to do just that that afternoon. So I was driven back to the clinic in Munich with blue lights flashing. Fortunately, it turned out that my heart was stable and I was allowed to go home again. But how do you get home in such a state and at such a late hour? Again, the only thing I could think of was the couple I was friends with. I called them and they picked me up straight away. That's true charity, when a person drives almost 200 km for someone else at 9 p.m.! 

This elderly couple are my role models for hospitality and helpfulness! If only a fraction of people were like them, the world would be a better place.
In these times, I am all the more grateful to belong to a global family of faith that is there for each other even in difficult times. 

It goes without saying that I wanted to show my appreciation for all the help I had received and all the trouble I had caused. I was also really looking forward to finally being able to stand at a canvas in my apartment again and paint it. So I looked for a cheerful motif that would reflect the joie de vivre of my dear friends. On Youtube I came across a Tutorial by John Magne Lisondra. I liked it and it looked relatively easy. It's the first painting where I didn't paint a small test painting on acrylic paper beforehand. It was also really easy to paint. Except for the meadow to the right of the river. I didn't want to do it quite so well. But I'm happy with the overall result. As I wanted to incorporate something from the Bible into this picture, I added the scroll with a verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:16. Today the picture has found a place directly in the entrance of the house of this dear elderly couple, where the picture is the first thing to greet visitors. The picture was created on a 40x50cm canvas.

Today, six months later, I look back on a turbulent 2020. It was not an easy year. I don't just mean the situation with Covid-19, but also my own personal situation. It was one of the darkest periods of my life in terms of health. But I was able to experience how I received exactly the strength I needed every day. I put the following Bible text under God's nose several times and he kept his promise every time: 

He gives strength to the weary and strength to the faint. Young men grow weary and faint, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the LORD gain new strength; they lift up their wings like eagles, they run and do not faint, they walk and do not grow weary. 

-The Bible, Isaiah 40:29-31 

I often thought this year that I couldn't take another step. And not just in a figurative sense... But the moment I couldn't go any further, I was able to experience the power of my brilliant redemption all the more strongly.  

When I look back at the pictures I painted this year, I am simply grateful. Despite the absolute exhaustion and all the struggles, the results have been quite acceptable. There are still two or three projects missing that I managed to complete this year and haven't yet shared here on the blog. One of them, my biggest project so far, I painted partly in a fever. But more about that in a later blog post. 

Now there is only one thing left to say: 

Soli Deo Gloria!

Here is a detail of a picture I am currently working on.