Ocean Rider Painting by PainterArtist FIN

Ocean Rider

by PainterArtist FIN

Canvas Print

$90

Framed Print

$108

Art Print

$42

Poster

$42

Metal Print

$96

Acrylic Print

$104

Wood Print

$76

Throw Pillow

$28

Duvet Cover

$102

Shower Curtain

$88

Tote Bag

$25

Greeting Card

$15

Buy the Original Painting

Price

$1,250

Dimensions

1864.000 x 1375.000 inches

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Title

Ocean Rider

Artist

PainterArtist FIN

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

The Old Fisherman, OCEAN RIDER by PainterArtistFIN
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John

Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the

upstairs rooms to out-patients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was

fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see an awful

looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought,

as I looked at his shriveled body. His face was lopsided from swelling, as

well as red and raw. Yet his voice was nice as he said, "Good evening.

I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a

treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus till

morning."

He said he'd been hunting for a room since noon, without any success.

No one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face... I know it looks

terrible, but my doctor tells me with a few more treatments ..." For a

moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me. "I could sleep in

the rocking chair on the porch, he said. My bus leaves early in the

morning." I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.

I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked

the old man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he

held up a brown paper bag. When I had finished the dishes, I went out on

the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take long to see this

old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.

He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five kids,

and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury. He

didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was

prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that he had

no pain from his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He

thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.

At bedtime, I put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got

up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man

was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his

bus, haltingly, as if asking a big favor, he said, "Could I please come stay

here the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can

sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your

children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but

children don't seem to mind." I said he was welcome to come again.

On his next trip the fisherman came a little after seven that morning. As a

gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever

seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that

they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 A.M., and I wondered

what time he had to get up in order to do that for us.

In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time

that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.

Other times we received packages in the mail, by special delivery; fish

and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf

carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these,

and knowing how little money he made, the gifts were doubly precious.

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment

our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did you

keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose

roomers by putting up such people!" Maybe we did lose roomers once or

twice. Oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses

would have been easier to bear. Our family always will be grateful to

have known him -- from him we learned what it was to accept the bad

without complaint and the good with gratitude to God;for OUR blessings.

Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me

her flowers, we came to the most beautiful flower of all; a golden

chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was

growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were

my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"

My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and

knowing how beautiful this flower would be, I thought it wouldn't mind

starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out

in the garden."

She may have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was

imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful

one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old

fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."

This all happened a long time ago -- and now, in God's garden, how "tall"

this lovely soul must stand. Lets ALL see the contents, not the container.

Addendum -- 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) "People judge by outward appearance,

but the Lord looks at a person's thoughts and intentions."
Author Unknown. More Galleries at wholisticartsschool.com
Special pricing on all originals through July.
This painting has been feature in:
-Natural Scenic Landscape on 3/13/2013
-Female Artists on 3/12/2013
-Vote and vote often on 3/11/2013