First Light in the Thicket
A Pastel Painting, a Scripture Meditation, and a Song of Quiet Hope
Light has the most amazing ability to cut through even the deepest thicket to revealed even the slither of evidence that something is beyond the darkness. Something good.
I recently revisited several paintings I had created over the past few months and came across this pastel piece. I hadn’t spent much time reflecting on it when I first finished it. But looking at it again, I found myself especially drawn to how the light filters into the forest, then sort of dances in defiance of the darker tones. The pastel medium, with its softness and immediacy, helped me capture a sense of that mystery—the quiet of early morning, the stillness before the day begins, and the way grace seems to seep in, even through tangled woods.
It had a quiet impact on me, and I thought it might have the same effect on someone else. Maybe this image—and the music and Scripture I’ve paired with it—will bring a little encouragement today.
In a shadowed glade where trees rise like sentinels, a surprising light breaks through. You don’t expect it at first—just a glint on a branch, a golden shimmer at the base of the undergrowth. But then it grows. The light moves through the thicket like a whispered promise. It doesn’t conquer the darkness all at once. It communes with it.
This piece was created during a time of prayer and quiet reflection, and I now see what I didn’t recognize then: the interplay of blue and gold, of weight and release. That tension—of light from Another World filtering through difficulties in this one—is often how we are alerted to God’s grace. Slowly. Quietly. But by turning and trusting in the Light of the world, always surely.
Scripture Meditation
“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16).
The Old Testament begins with God creating something out of nothing as He moves over the face of the deep, an enigmatic chaos. In the New Testament, we see that a New Creation is taking shape through the coming of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Gospel according to Matthew, a light has appeared. But it is more than just another sunrise. This Light brings freedom to those enslaved by sin. It breaks the grip of another lesser power over the nations of the earth. This Light ushers in a New Heaven and a New Earth. This Light is the Light of the World. He announces the breaking in of Christ’s kingdom into the shadows of this world. The people who once sat in spiritual dusk are now awakened by dawn. Christ is the Light, and He has entered the thicket.
Musical Reflection
La Nativité Ouverture © Michael Anthony Milton (Bethesda Music Group, BMI).
From the album When Heaven Came Down, © Michael Anthony Milton (Bethesda Music Group, BMI).
This gentle string overture was written to capture the quiet, awestruck wonder of the One Isaiah foresaw as “the People’s light.” Simple musical phrases echo the hush of that holy dawn when heaven touched earth. And in this pairing, the music reflects the same sacred quiet as the pastel: the presence of God where we least expect Him.
Final Thought
Art and music often help us see what Scripture already reveals: the Light has come. Not in a blast of glory that blinds, but in the quiet glow of morning breaking through a forest. May this painting, this verse, and this song draw your heart closer to the One who walks with us among the trees.
Yours faithfully,
Mike
