Art

Timeless

June 14, 2021 - By Natalie Buske Thomas

Watch me paint this city scene with fountain from downtown Savannah, Georgia in 2 minutes (time lapse)

It’s difficult to tell when I painted this scene because there’s not much in the painting that dates it to a specific time period. There are no automobiles or people to judge by make and model of car or by style of wardrobe. The architecture can date it, but if the buildings and structures have been in place for many years, the time period isn’t narrowed down by much. The same can be said for mature trees- some trees can live for a very long time.

The absence of people and their possessions makes it nearly impossible to guess the time period, which was in the autumn of 2019. It’s people who mark the time, with our clothing, hair styles, and transport. Without us, the world is often timeless.

So imagine, if you will, that someone has stayed out of the public view for the past year… unwilling to see the world masked, hostile, and delusional. For such a person, the world is timeless, waiting for when people let go of fear and start living again. Until then, there are trees and birds to look upon, gardens to plant, and canvases to paint.

We all have free will to choose the reality we wish to live in. What is truth? Who defines it? If a person doesn’t hear the “new truth”, does the faux reality exist? No, it doesn’t. We must consent to a delusion to make it so. And even then, reality is not mocked. Eventually, the important things are known and the deceit falls away. Who is broken and swept under the ground during the destruction? Those who are caught up in its path may be swept away.

God is timeless. “And this too shall pass”. Things of man are temporary. Those who wait it out will survive. When we set our eyes upon that which is timeless, we will see the world the way that it really is… beautiful, unmasked, and free.