Angels in Our Midst

This book provides a double blessing, not only for those who read this book, but also those who benefit from its success. ~ Ron Hall, New York Times bestselling author, from his foreword to Angels In Our Midst

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At a certain point I didn’t know how I could keep up with the increasing demand for angel paintings. I was honored and thrilled that so many people wanted an original, but I was just one person. I couldn’t give everyone an angel.

Or could I?

After the Angel series started selling, becoming popular, and growing in value, people would comment that they wished they had bought an original “back then” (when I first started painting). I most often heard this when people toured my studio, where I had a stack of hundreds of images of angels I had painted, then sold, donated, or gifted. I also had matching stories to share with visitors, an inspirational story for almost every single piece of art God had created through me. It dawned on me one day that I could create a beautiful coffee table book that would be affordable so that everyone could enjoy the Angel series.

It’s perfect, I thought. With a high-quality art book, someone could carefully extract a page and frame it. Everyone can have an angel! Maybe it wouldn’t be an original, but I wanted the angels to be accessible to as many people as possible. Pairing them with the stories of all God had done — in people’s lives, through the charities I partnered with — would make an art book even more special. The project started to take shape in my mind, page by page.

But I had to get the book out of my mind and onto people’s coffee tables, so I opened my computer at the kitchen table one day, determined yet unsure. How can I write a book? I’m an artist with oil paints, not words.

All I can tell you is that my experience writing Angels in Our Midst affirmed that

when God calls you to do something, He will be faithful to equip you for it.

The words flowed out of my heart and onto the pages. God brought memories back to me, things I had forgotten but that He wanted me to share in the book. My friends and colleagues wrote reflections for me to include, their sides of the stories of how God worked, using the angels to benefit charities and individuals. An amazing project editor joined my team, and both my sister and my dear friend Ron Hall wrote wonderful forewords. I collaborated with a remarkable designer who translated the angel paintings into art-book form so beautifully.

The designer I worked with on Angels in Our Midst navigated an avalanche of details with me. I remember one conversation about ink. She began with a very dark black ink for the text. It felt too black to me. “Can we soften it up a bit?” I asked. It’s probably a good thing that I couldn’t see her face every time I called or emailed to ask her for yet another change. But I am nothing if not a detailed person. And very visual. If I know the details, I can even see in my mind a creative work a friend has planned long before it’s brought to life. I urged the designer to stick with me, knowing that — together — we were creating a beautiful book.

And we did.

After countless hours of discussing, designing, editing, and tweaking, Angels in Our Midst entered the world. It was early October 2012 when I heard a knock on my studio door. A delivery man stood on the threshold, and my breath caught momentarily. It almost felt like I was bringing another child into the world. I had planned and prayed and prayed and planned for many, many months. So many people had worked hard on this project, and it was finally here, in real life!

But where were the books?

There was the delivery guy but with not one book in sight. I had ordered an initial print run of 1,500 copies, so I expected boxes upon boxes on pallets stacked high. Dan the delivery guy was standing there, empty-handed.

Dan explained that his semitruck was too large for the driveway; he’d had to leave it on the main road. That was unexpected but I was eager and determined to get the books into my studio, not only because this was “my baby” but also because I had hundreds of preorders to fill. I couldn’t wait for a smaller truck!

Delivery Dan and I walked to the main road, where I immediately saw the dilemma he faced. His semitruck was large... I mean extra large. There was no way he could maneuver it through my studio’s small drive and parking lot. We had a loading dock at the studio, but a loading dock is useless if you can’t pull a truck up close enough.

I wasn’t exactly angry with Delivery Dan when he told me that he would not — and I repeat would not — touch the books. It’s a union issue, he offered. For me, this was not particularly helpful information. And I had no equipment that would enable me to do the off-loading myself. There were 150 boxes weighing 42 pounds each (coffee book tables aren’t lightweights, my friend). Not only did they need to get in the studio, they also needed to get up the small elevator to my second-floor space.

Desperation mounting inside me, I called Clark to see if he could help or send any of his employees to help. Nothing. Busy day at his office too. I peeked into my framer’s office, adjacent to my own, and asked if Joe — a faithful friend, not just my framer — could spare a minute to help. “Well, this might take more than a minute, Joe,” I tried to explain.

We went to work and began unloading the truck, box by box. After a few boxes I felt pretty discouraged. I was already feeling the strain and had no clue how Joe and I would be able to complete this massive under- taking. I threw up the prayer equivalent to a Hail Mary pass in football, asking God to help.

God answered in the form of a guy named Calvin.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” this stranger began. “Could you spare just a few dollars? I’m strugglin’. Homeless. Trying to get back on my feet.”

Calvin saved me from a massive setback that day, unloading Angels in Our Midst and neatly stacking all 150 boxes in my second-floor studio on Kingston Avenue. I was overjoyed to pay Calvin a lot more than a few dollars, and off he walked, a small backpack slung over his shoulder. I never saw him again. I’m not saying Calvin was an angel, but his help was a gift from God. So was my faithful friend Joe’s.

Clark arrived at my studio later that day, after his own busy day at work. He took one look at the stacks and stacks of boxes, then said what might be the worst possible thing you can say to someone who had just self-published an art book.

“Wow! How in the world are you going to get rid of all these books?”

He didn’t intend it meanly. And I didn’t get angry. I honestly had total faith that God would, one book at a time, get Angels in Our Midst into the right people’s hands. Three weeks later every single book was gone and another five thousand copies were on their way.

“We’re gonna need a bigger truck,” I imagined Delivery Dan saying.

In the blink of an eye, those five thousand copies were gone, then another five thousand, and, well, you get the picture.

I had no idea that what had started out as sketches of angels would become a veritable heavenly host. Emails started flooding in, messages from people who wanted to share how much the book meant to them. I found that readers were eager to share their own stories of inspiration after journeying with me through the stories of inspiration told in the book.

The whole experience was beyond incredible. It was phenomenal to sit back and watch God at work. I also had to do a whole lot of work to keep up with what He was doing. I shipped and painted, painted and shipped. I also did some marketing and found that I was quite good at it. I missed my chance to get an A in a college class—Marketing 101. I feel like I could have killed that coursework. Heck, I might have been able to teach that class!

My detailed nature and attention to particulars helped in the marketing of Angels in Our Midst. My willingness to take some risks did as well. Okay, maybe it wasn’t super risky to ship a book to Kathie Lee Gifford, one of the celebrities I most admired, but I might have sent the book and never heard a word back. That is not what happened, however. Quite the contrary. God used that one little risk to grant me a hugely rewarding relationship with a sister in Christ who I count as one of my all-time best friends.

Brushstroke Moment

Can you remember a time when things just flowed, almost like you were a vessel rather than the instigator? This is what happened for me while writing Angels in Our Midst. I truly felt God’s words flowing through me and onto each page.

Do you believe that God can and wants to move in you and through you in powerful ways?
Why or why not? What do you think about inviting Him to do something new and amazing in and through you today?

Excerpted with permission from The Brushstrokes of Life by Anne Neilson, copyright Anne Neilson.

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Your Turn

In what ways is God using you and your life today? Are you willing to go in the flow of His will and see what He will do with it? ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full