Open Doors, Closed Doors

I’m sitting in my studio inside the Dilworth Artisan Station, which has been my home for eight years, and the home of my Anne Neilson Fine Art Gallery for almost two years. This place has truly been home… the setting for hours of worship music played, the birthplace of hundreds of angels, and subsequently the origin of so many amazing stories about God’s faithfulness and comfort that have been sent to me as a result of those paintings. But today I’m looking at all the packed boxes surrounding my usually serene studio. I’m on the brink of a major change that is bringing equal parts excitement and anxiety for me. The doors of this studio are about to close and move me to a new “Home,” in a space adjacent to our Anne Neilson Home showroom. We’ve been praying that God would expand the territory of the Anne Neilson brand, and particularly the Anne Neilson Home products, and He delivered expansion in an unexpected way, when the neighboring space to our Home showroom became available right as my studio lease was coming to a close. It’s the perfect site for me to join my painting, planning for upcoming seasons and to bring worship to life. I love God’s unquestionable provision. But, undoubtedly, as I let go of a season and a routine that was built in this nook on Kingston Drive, there is noticeable sadness in my heart. I cling to and trust what God has in store for this company and this ministry, but it isn’t always an easy practice to let go and trust Him for even bigger and better plans. I know His plans for me are even more audacious than the plans our team concocts sitting around the table of our Home space. His word tells us in Jeremiah 29:11-14 that His plans are to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future, but there is also a command embedded in those scriptures for us to “call on Him and come and pray to Him, and He will listen to you.” Our call is to earnestly and diligently seek Him in the midst of every circumstance. As I close these studios doors behind me, I will not look back, and I will try not to look ahead with concern or questioning. Yet I will look up - and cling to HOPE and a future knowing that I serve a mighty God who will go before me in all that I do today and tomorrow exactly as He did yesterday. I also want to assure you that our Anne Neilson Fine Art Gallery doors are staying open and will still be nestled in the Dilworth Artisan Station. We invite you to stop by and visit us Monday-Saturday!