China Lake in December
24×30 Acrylic on canvas
It’s late in the afternoon and the sun is setting on China Lake. The sky and lake seem remarkable in the cool hues of gray and blue. It’s not frozen yet. The water laps against the shore and ripples across the rocks. The snow is soft, melting and mushy, for winter has not set in yet. I love this time of year. Fall has ended, another year approaches it’s final days, all is quiet, and calm. The sky changes at these later hours, the winter solstice is about to commence. The sky and water look so icy. So deep. The squirrels are scattered, the birds are few. The crunch of the brown leaves tells me fall is over, another fall past. Winter in Maine about to begin.
I enjoy these quiet seasons. I think on the hope I have in Christ. Yes, time is slipping away so fast. A greater glory is in my thoughts. The Lord owns it all, all that this world possesses, and all it’s people. He is God. He is the Lord, mighty in battle.
Another afternoon approaching twilight. The sky is an apricot as the sun descends in the west. The dark foreboding clouds of late fall encroach on a white landscape filled with frigid air. The bare trees have let go of all their leaves of summer. They are on the ground now beneath the frozen white. Their stick branches reach high into the sky as if beckoning another chance at summer’s joys. But none shall be granted until another winter has come and gone. They are stiff, these trees and as the north wind blows they clap their hands in the winter sunset, the last light of another day. A short day it was, as here in Maine days end in but a moment it seems. Its late fall and it’s growing dark, the long horizon sheds the last rays of sun for this day in December. God sees us through every season. All the ebb and flow of times and days and seasons and years, He is there. For the believer, He promises to stay and guard our walk in this life until the final sunset comes and our eternal Father bids us ” fly away”.
“He only is my rock and my salvation “.
Psalm 62:6
Sarah Hopkins Art 