From a young age I have always enjoyed colouring. Every Christmas my Aunt would buy me a Platignum Colouring Set, and I really enjoyed spending time on Christmas Afternoon colouring in the pictures in the set.
About four years ago I started exploring using colouring as a spiritual tool in my quiet time. I often find it difficult to focus when I am praying, my mind seem to go off in so many different directions and tangents. The first colouring book I purchased was from Lindisfarne Scriptorium. I then read Sybil McBeth's book Praying in Colour. And so my journey in Colouriing as a Meditation and Spiritual tool began.
Sometimes I would doodle my prayers, other times I would take time to colour a picture. My prayer life changed for the better, I became more focused, I started to pray specifically for people on my mind, and because I was focused there have been many times when God has prompted me to do a certain thing or pray for a particular person.
I find it usually takes me about a week to colour one picture, and during this time I focus on my prayers and I have realised that this has been helpful and effective.
The book I have been using for about the last three months is this one:
There is a picture on one side of the page and on the other there is a thought or hymn to help me focus. The paper is very good quality which allows me to experiment with the materials I use.
Here are a few of the pictures I have coloured in.
Some of the pictures are quite simple to colour in, this gives me opportunity not to focus so much on the picture, but more on the person I am praying for.
Sometimes when I am colouring, God quite clearly shows me who I should be praying for. A few months a a young girl called Amy from the Salvation Army had a bad cycling accident whilst she was on holiday in Australia. A Facebook page was set up so that people could join together and pray for Amy and her family.
As I was colouring this page above, I thought about all the people that were praying for Amy throughout the world. God gave me a picture of a patchwork quilt and how all our prayers were being made into a spiritual patchwork quilt, which would be like a comfort blanket that would surround the family in God's love.
I shared this completed coloured picture on the Facebook page to encourage everyone to keep praying. Amy didn't make it and she is now in her heavenly home that God has prepared for her. As people continue to pray for her family I pray that we all might be enveloped in God's love and care.
I have been a crafter for many years, and like every other crafter buy equipment that I use for a while and then it gets left alone. About 6 years ago I bought some Sakura Gelly Roll Pens, it has given me great joy to rediscover them for my Bible Journalling and Colouring, the picture above and below have been coloured using these pens.
There are still plenty of colouring pages in this book, and I know that God will use this book to bless me and the many others I will pray for as I colour. The last picture I would like to share is this one:
This is still a work in progress, and that is true for each one of us as individuals, in God's eyes we are all still a work in progress. We each need to allow God to work in us every day as He completes the the big picture.
We are all part of that big picture and we all need to be ready to use the God colours God has given each of us to colour in that picture.
As Matthew 5:14-16 in the Message Bible states:
Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
May God help us to blend the spiritual colours He has given to each of us so we can present to Him a beautiful picture of living together in harmony,
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