Works of Art

For family home evening this past Monday night, we got in touch with an old childhood favorite: drawing with crayons.

I am not nor was I ever a great artist. There was a time, though, when I would doodle and draw during much of my spare time (and sometimes during class). I created one comic book after another in the fifth through eighth grades. (If you think my movies are bizarre, you should have seen the comics.) In my extracurricular junior high art class, I often drew my own interpretations of action shots from Sports Illustrated in pencil.

Well, I don't do that much anymore. But it's still fun to pick up a box of crayons and see what you can come up with.

So, back to Monday night. Each table was first given a minute with which to begin drawing a fairy tale or a nursery rhyme. Then, after the minute was up, we had to pass it to the person to our right, and that person would continue the tale. And so on. Next, we did the same with a story from the scriptures. Here is what the others on the table did with my version of the King Benjamin story from the Book of Mosiah:


I particularly liked the addition of the "Welcome to the Jungle!" quote. Finally, we had five minutes with which to draw a self-portrait. Here is what I came up with:

Note that we had only five minutes to draw this. I realize it's not worthy of the Louvre.

Following FHE, I drove out to LDS Hospital in the Avenues of Salt Lake City to meet my new niece, Kira Nancy, who had been born that afternoon at 3:59 p.m., weighing seven pounds and eight ounces. (Biz was smart enough to bring her camera when she and Jeff came out, and she's got some good pics of Kira on their blog.)

I got to hold Kira for about five minutes, which made the whole trip worthwhile. She is a cute little bundle, as were my other nieces and nephews when they, too, were just six hours old. I look forward to sharing some crayons with her in future days.

Holding a newborn in my arms is always an extremely humbling experience. Each time, it gives me a renewed sense of awe and wonder at the Almighty's power and the infinite love He has for all of His children.

Talk about a work of art.