Vivid Brushstrokes

I recall vividly walking a motel parking lot as a security guard in the wee hours of the morning while God gave me inspiration to write this book. The weather was unfavorable to say the least, with many nights of freezing temperatures and even cold rain, but my fellowship with God in those times warmed my heart and filled my mind with topics to write about.

At other times, ideas came to me as I was driving on my evening delivery job. On those occasions, I scrambled to jot down the ideas while negotiating lane changes and stop lights in rush hour traffic. Sometimes all I had was a paper napkin or other scrap of paper lying in the seat to scribble down the main thoughts. But in those moments, it was as if God was saying "here is the material I am giving you, now take it and write it down." And so I did.

The original idea for this book was spawned about ten years ago when I was surveying my collection of seashells packed in an old plastic five-gallon bucket. Looking at those shells quickly took me back to our last trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I had painstakingly collected the seashells. I was careful to pick out just the right shells, in hopes that they would make suitable pieces for some craft projects I envisioned. While I mused about the morning walks on the beach that produced the collection and studied the variety of shells I had brought home, a story began to form in my mind. Later that evening, I put pen to paper in formulating those thoughts into a rough draft, but for some reason laid it aside for several years.

In the spring of 2012, I came across that essay when I was looking through some paperwork. I read it over again and began to make revisions and additions to the copy. All I had in mind was to finish the essay, but then God had something else in mind. He began to take that story and enlarge my vision about writing similar stories in the form of analogies, even parable-like illustrations. He showed me how spiritual precepts could be drawn from ordinary items in everyday life.

I have written the book in analogy form for the purpose of edifying believers and opening the eyes of others to God’s timeless truths. I begin each story with a natural object, describing it in a story or anecdote and then follow up with a spiritual parallel and a scripture verse at the conclusion. The book can be helpful for devotional purposes or it can be applied in teaching object lessons to youth or adults.

The main import is that God's world is replete with illustrations to get our attention and teach us His truths. He is constantly painting pictures from his palette of many colors in brushstrokes of truth that we observe in everyday objects. This book is but an example of those many pictures.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus used common everyday objects in parables to help his followers understand the spiritual concepts that he was teaching. Today's world is replete with objects that we observe and use daily that serve to illuminate God and the truths of His Word through analogies. Vivid Brushstrokes simply takes the bold colors of truth from God's palette and applies them to these everyday things in a devotional context. The concept of this book began with a story about a trip to the beach and a five-gallon bucket of seashells. From the variety of types, colors and conditions of seashells evolved an analogic essay comparing seashells to mankind. Although the original story was laid aside for several years, it was resurrected when the author felt God's encouragement to write more such devotional stories based on the analogy between other natural objects and their spiritual precepts. One by one, ideas began to flow until Vivid Brushstrokes contained one hundred separate narratives. The book is peppered throughout with personal anecdotes from the author's early life and adulthood to give it a simple, homespun approach. Vivid Brushstrokes' primary purpose is to edify believers and awaken lost persons to the vibrant and indelible illustrations of truth that God is manifesting in brilliant pigments before their eyes.

AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY Dennis Borden grew up in the rural farming community of Monroe City, Missouri, which is near the boyhood home of Mark Twain, in Hannibal. As the only son and eldest child of three, he learned the value of hard work from laboring with his father on a family farm while enjoying a strong family bond that included exposure to church life as a toddler. His skill in writing developed from earning an undergraduate degree in English at the University of the Cumberlands (formerly Cumberland College) in Williamsburg, Kentucky. To widen his understanding of the scriptures, Borden obtained a diploma by correspondence in Biblical Studies from the Liberty Home Bible Institute of Liberty University. Most recently, in 2010, he satisfied a lifelong desire from his love of books by completing a Master's degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. His writing background includes producing sports stories and features for a daily newspaper, The Times Tribune; contributing to a family magazine called Southeastern Kentucky Family and a Christian newspaper, Christian Life; freelance writing in management training and development; authoring articles for an Internet training blog and contributing to the Strayer University newsletter, Campus Voice. As a student of the Bible, Borden has taught Sunday School classes and Bible studies to various age groups from children to senior adults for over twenty five years. This experience has prepared him to relate the many truths of scripture as seen from objects and circumstances in everyday life, which is the primary focus of Vivid Brushstrokes. Mr. Borden is married to his wife Sandra, has two grown children and lives in Huntsville, Alabama, where he is currently the Learning Resource Center Manager at Strayer University.