Church Art Competition

Brad's brother Gary has many talents, one of which is painting. This year he has devoted many hours a week to a painting that he submitted to the Church Art Competition earlier in October. We have only seen this copy of the original, but are very impressed with his work. We thought that you might be interested in it as well.
We hope that he doesn't mind that we share this beautiful work of art with you along with the story behind the painting. ( Click on the picture to see an enlarged version.)
Gary's Story
It began at family home evening in February. I selected one of my favorite hymns, How Great Thou Art, to sing as the closing song. I said “someday I ought to paint a picture of that hymn”. Since I was in the midst of painting two deer in Rocky Mountain NP, I sketched out the scene I envisioned from the hymn and placed it with my other sketches for future paintings. Someday I said.

In March I noticed the Church Art Competition. I realized it must be the one I had attended three years ago while in Salt Lake visiting family. When I saw the theme Remembering the Great Things of God I couldn’t believe it. I think I was supposed to paint my idea.

I pulled out my sketch which showed me kneeling before Christ at the Second Coming in the center, surrounded by forests, lakes, mountains, a bird singing in the trees, with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.

I went back to the hymn and wondered, “Are these all the great things of God?” I began pondering the other things that really should be included if I truly wanted all the great things of God.

The first three versus were written by Carl Gustaf, a Swedish pastor and editor. Stuart K. Hine, an English missionary, sang it to a Swedish folk tune at an evangelistic meeting. He translated it into English and later wrote the fourth verse as a triumphant message of life eternal.

Although inspired, for the words are wonderful and full of meaning, there is so much more that the restored gospel brings. What about prophets and the temples and family and the ordinances and scripture… Once I got started, I couldn’t stop. There are so many wonderful things that God has given us to enjoy. Some may say I have tried to include too much in one painting, but that is the point. There are so many wonderful things.

After making my list of things to include, I began drawing and painting. I said “someone ought to add a few versus to the hymn to make it a true LDS hymn”. As I thought more about it, the words started to come. Having never written the lyrics to a song before, I was hesitant.

The two new versus which should be sung between the current second and third versus are as follows: (go ahead and sing it, it’s ok)

Thy church restored, the fullness of the gospel,
Thy priesthood power, returned to earth to stay;
Book of Mormon, together with the Bible,
We know thy will, our prophet speaks today.

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

The promises, and temple ordinances,
Both for the dead, and our posterity,
Together bound, husband and wife and family,
Not just this life, but all eternity.