One day while visiting Tera, I paused outside a door close to the dining room.  The sun was brilliant on the snow, in the courtyard, and I could see the window of Tera's room.  Tera left to go home a few minutes past midnight.  The photo was a reference for this painting as I pictured Tera leaving and being escorted to her new home.

The story behind the painting, "Home Before Daybreak" is about Bonnie's cousin Tera, who lived her life in a body bound by cerebral palsy.  After spending many years confined to a chair or a bed in the Gallatin Rest Home and unable to speak, she was placed in Hospice Care until one day after months of Hospice she decided to go 'home' to heaven.  The poem, "Tera" is about her last day on earth. 

TERA

We walked into your room that day

And sat beside your bed to pray--

Three sisters there in joyous song,

In that place where we belonged

Without a care, we talked to you

Of marvelous things that you would do

And things you'd see on heaven's shore

With loved ones there forever more.

We watched as your expressions changed--

As the atmosphere was rearranged

As you decided whether or not--

You wanted to go and leave this spot.

Two sisters left quite unaware

That in the night you would choose to go there.

Oh Tera dear, you beautiful doll--

Jesus spoke and you answered His Call.

Jesus our High Priest........Jesus.  He did so much.  He endured so much.  All for us. We were the joy set before Him. We are what enabled Him to endure such contradictions of sinners against himself..we are what enabled  him to ignore the beating, the reviling, and the horrible shame that he despised.  We did that.  We are His joy.

Hebrews 5:7   He shrank from the horrors of being separated from the bright presence of the Father.
Amplified       I thought about that verse this morning.  There is a lot in that verse.  There are horrors                          that exist outside of the bright presence of the Father.  The bright presence of the Father illuminates.  It is His will made known to us.  Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.  Jesus expressed the will of the Father.  He is the expressed image of the Father.  Emmanuel, God with us.  When Jesus came among the people, there was no longer a separation from the bright presence of the Father.  The horrors of sin could not exist in His presence.  How grievous for Jesus to walk this earth in the flesh, being limited by the flesh to bring the brightness of God to the horrors of a creation experiencing separation from a loving Father's brightness.
   We, the joy set before Him  He saw us with access into the Holy of Holies BY HIS BLOOD.  He saw us no longer having to be separated from the brightness of His presence.
        There is another part of that verse that I believe we need to  take a serious look at.  The amplified reads this way;  IN the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up definite special petitions (for that which He not only wanted but needed) and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him who was always able to save Him out from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God ( His Godly fear, piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father)
  What I needed to ask myself was, is that how I am? And for the Father to create that same spirit in me, that I do not want to be outside of His will and in the horrors of what that would create, recognizing that to be there would truly be in the presence of horrors.

Jesus paid the price for us to live in the brightness of God's presence ALWAYS!

Bonnie