Paul Klee and Birthday

Be assembled and listen, sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.
Genesis 49*2, from the first lines of Parsha Vayechi

Shayndel`s diary and connecting with Joanne

In the first lines of Parsha Vayechi, Jacob introduces the blessings for his sons.  Jacob is called both Jacob and Israel, and we learn from the sages that his names, both of which clearly remain with him up to his death and beyond, represent two different sides and purposes that God has given him.   In this diary I am not going to talk about that but used this first line as it is a fascinating study to keep in mind in the Torah study, and it also makes a link into something I want to talk about in my story in this post.  Even if we are not the grand characters of the stories of the Bible (and we don't even know really), we are living children of the living God and He shows us how we can learn from it for things in our own lives and helps us how we can see our own stories as we integrate the different parts of our lives in Him and for His purposes.

Like Jacob, I also have two names!!  One didn`t replace the other but I do use one for some things and one for others, and on my birthday--yesterday--I felt God showing me that they are joining together!
My name that I was born with is Joanne.  Or actually that is not the whole truth.  I also was born with the name Shayndel.  Its possible that I was Shayndel even before I was Joanne, as its the name I was given by my Grandmother, its a Yiddish name.  It means, beautiful.  Also I have seen it mean gracious gift from God.  Its possible that was my first name!! I kinda hope so!! The name my parents gave me and the name that was what I considered my name my whole life is Joanne.  I don`t know that I completely feel like a Joanne, but that is ok, its who I am!! Somehow once God showed me to use my Hebrew/Yiddish name Shayndel, just a few years ago, I felt it was a part of me that I was able to express myself in a new found way, and a few years ago I started using Shayndel for my blog, and then for signing my art, kind of like a pen name.

When I received salvation in Jesus, I didn`t yet know his other name. I had no idea the name *Yeshua*.  When I was saved, I thought I was no longer Jewish, as we as Jewish people were taught that Jesus is as far from us as.. .well, to use His terms...as far as the east is from the west!! Maybe farther.  So my surprise at becoming a believer in Jesus Christ almost 5 years ago was completely out of  a field I didn`t know exisited!!  FF a few years from that time, and God showed me back to my Jewish faith, my Jewish name,  my Jewish Messiah, the Jewish feasts, His Shabbat bread!! 

That`s around when I started this blog.

When I was "Joanne" only and didn`t yet know Jesus or Yeshua, I had a favorite artist.
His name is Paul Klee. He was born on the same day as me, (my natural b-day!), Dec. 18.
I always would search out a place to see his paintings on my birthday, and it was easy when I lived in NY, I would go to the Museum of Modern Art, or the Met, and sit with his works in the room or gallery they were displayed, and quietly wish him a happy birthday in thought and in song from my heart!!  Those were those days.

When I was saved, God showed me to basically get rid of all my artwork from my Before Christ days, and it was a kind of tormentous time, but I just did what I was told and in my house today there is not a trace of any thing I drew before my salvation.  And not a trace of practically anything material from that time, except of course those memories and photos of my daughter and family.  Those were safe!!  So too my favorite artists, writers, everything I felt close to before my Salvation was just swooped away, and I was being emptied, and what I now now the word I didn:t know then, consecrated.  We have to be emptied, consecrated, and surrender everything to God, though I didn`t know what was happening when it was happening, and surely still is happening, but I am sensing that I am able to walk now into something new, which is a time of being able to once again join up with parts of my past that weren:t really thrown away as I thought, but just reserved for a while until I was ready to see from God`s eyes.  I thought that being made a new creation in Christ, I would emerge unrecognizable to anything and anyone from my past, that my talents would be different, my whole way of being would change, and I wouldn`t be anything like the person I was.  But guess what?  I am seeing that its not exactly like that.  And to my surprise, I am coming closer to the person I "was", but a cleaned up version, having been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb!!

Whew!! Am I going to leave all that on this post?
Anyway, the Paul Klee and Birthday title is now going to be explained, so I have to keep on!!

When I checked my i-pad in the morning of my birthday, to my surprise, just under the Google banner, was a little picture of a Paul Klee paining!! (picture above)
Where in the world did that come from?
The only thing I could think of , was that it didn`t come from the world, it came from Heaven!!

God was showing me that its his birthday too!! It was almost like a direct connect between Shayndel and Joanne.  It was like I as Shayndel could now see Paul Klee from God`s eyes in a new and wonderful refreshed way!!   And God wanted me to remember that today is the day that is my birthday and shared with Paul Klee!

I was so happy!  To re-connect with Joanne who loved Paul Klee, now as Shayndel who knows Yeshua!! And guess what, the next painting he showed me was one I never saw or never noticed all the years I was looking at Paul Klee, it was this painting of a lamb!!!

I had such nourishing time looking at his paintings and even found (without really looking) this video of an art exercise to do inspired by Paul Klee (a lesson called Paul Klee Word Art Lesson by Katie Knutson ) !! And the woman who taught it was showing an example of putting a Bible Verse into the squares!! It was all too much !! In a perfect way!!  Of course this painting of the lamb is quite intense, and I realized a side of Paul Klee and the times he was living in in Europe at that time that I had never seen before.

For now  I wanted to share that  story as a birthday diary for today (yesterday) and now I really have to go back to the Pomegranates!!! They are just coming through the shute of heaven to our supermarkets and going into Challah bread for the season gifts!!  Once the pomegranates  are all sold out (bought out), I hope to do some painting!! I bought for myself a gift from God for my birthday, a set of watercolors !!

Much love to all and to all , do love much!!

♡ 　　♡

Love,
Joanne and Shayndel!!

(my two names just for this post, I am pretty sure I will go back to posting just as Shayndel!!)

Another picture from my screen yesterday, 12/18, Mt. Fuji.

 almost looks like its in Paul Klee colors!  From the weather report.