Which Came First, the Chicken or the Angel?

Lately I've been itching to try every new art medium that tickles my fancy. It doesn't take much of an excuse to be "inspired." Today I was reading to my eight-year-old son, my one and only home school student in the family these days. I was reading from Revelation. That book is chock full of images that are delightful to ponder--and to paint.

So I read a particular verse and told Joel that he and I would use my new acrylic paints to make pictures of the angel in this verse. The vocabulary is quite simple, but the image it evokes is grand.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. Rev 10:1

I had hoped my rendering would somehow match the scripture in grandeur.

Excited, I set out paper bags, brushes, water, napkins, and the brand new acrylics.
This would be so good. I was embarking on a new joy: painting the scriptures.

Starting with
an angel
robed in a cloud,
rainbow over his head,
fiery pillars for legs
and a face like the sun.


How colorful! How vibrant.



How pathetic.

Just LOOK at this. Take a good look at my "angel."





Joel took one glance at it and laughed. "Mom! That looks like a little chick being born and saying, "Where am I?'"

I busted out laughing, too. A chicken! That's exactly what it looks like. I decided to paint a singing mouth on him. I could barely hold the brush still, I was laughing so hard.

Stephen came along and added his jokes. Said this hatchling appears to be looking in the mirror, shocked and bewildered. (In Steve's best animated Minnesotan chicky voice): "Nobody TOLD me I'd come out with a RAINbow on my head. This is kinda....kinda....weird!"

I was DYing!

Oh, the humble pie I eat around here.

And then--check this out--I had the nerve to offer Joel some constructive criticism for his painting.



"Why don't you make the legs longer, honey? Pillars are big columns."

To which he said, "Nah. At least mine looks like more like an angel than a chicken."

(Which is true. A parachuting angel with no neck and a unibrow, but an angel no less.)