T-Shirt

 

I was thinking about this shirt recently. It had been about 2 years ago that I painted and designed it. It was a creative outlet for me at the time as I was going through a rough and challenging time. It was filled with uncertainty, so what better way to fill it up with some inspiration and fun activities that easily lift my heart. 

I was struck by the scriptural verse from Isaiah 66:9 and felt that it so distinctively spoke to my heart and what I was going through. I needed to remember that verse, and embrace it, so I wrote it with the puff paints near my heart. 

I thought of some of the inspiring saints that I like and wrote them down on this burgundy t-shirt. They included St. Anthony of Padua, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Rafael, St. Maria Goretti, St. Padre Pio, St. Augustine, St. Maria Faustina, and St. John the Baptist. (Maybe at some point, I could dedicate a t-shirt to all the many saints I love!:)) 

That summer I was continuing with learning Russian as I had gotten back into it and interested April 2020. On the side of the shirt, I wrote in Russian 'Our Sea'. It was a metaphor I came up with. Below, I drew a fish and on the top corner near my shoulder, I drew a sun. The metaphor has to do with the saints that I listed on the t-shirt had gone through their own struggles and sufferings, so I was entering into their world, or their 'sea' of hardships, but also their 'sea' of love and grace from God. I wouldn't be alone, forgotten or without help. 

I wear this t-shirt at bedtime, but it always reminds me of that particular summer, filled with its hyssop branch and dregs of the unknown. But it didn't come without the grace and provision of God, and for that I can look back from that time 2 years ago with gratitude as well as some good memories and making that time my own, creative and original outlet.