Alysia Watkins

Raised Up

Acrylic & charcoal on canvas

24” x 36”

When digging through the rubble while rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, what pieces of the previously destroyed lives were found? Broken toys? Dishes? Bones? This sad, yet hopeful, painting explores the parallels between recovering from a natural disaster and the Israelites returning to restore (even resurrect?) their destroyed city. God saved a remnant from the disaster, though many also died. Ezra, the priest, returned first to rebuild the Temple, just as people need medics first to resuscitate life. Later, Nehemiah led a group to rebuild the defenses and re-establish God’s boundaries for His people—as construction workers come to do here. (Nehemiah 6:15-16)