This morning I spent a couple of hours shut up in my bedroom sipping on coffee while I cried my way through a Hallmark movie. The Christmas Cottage was, "inspired by actual events" in Thomas Kinkade's early life. We all know that "inspired by actual events" leaves a lot of room for the writer's imagination, but this morning I chose to believe that the main points of the movie were absolutely true!
The story was actually written in honor of one of Thomas Kinkaid's mentors. Peter O'Toole portrays the mentor, Glen Weissler. The movie is set in 1977 during Christmas break when Thomas and his brother, Pat come home to find mom in financial trouble. Right away, it had me because these two young men were willing to put their lives aside to help mom. According to my limited research, that part of the movie is true and was the stepping stone to Kinkad's career as an artist.
Glen was an elderly gentleman who had a studio home on the edge of their property and over the years he and Thomas had become close. At the point of the movie, Thomas Kinkade had not yet become the "Painter of Light" as we know him today. His work was described as good drawings, but lacking heart.
In 1977, Glen Weissler was very old and plagued with crippling arthritis. Every time Thomas visited Glen, he would encourage the old artist to paint just one more time. This was next to impossible due to arthritis that had deformed Glen's hands. Still, over and over, Thomas and the rest of the cast insisted that he paint again. I felt really bad for the old guy and wanted to tell them to leave him alone. He was obviously close to death; let him die in peace already. But, that would not have been nearly so wonderful an ending.
You see, Glen did have one more painting in him. Even with his hands deformed and losing his grip on reality, the old artist had not yet fulfilled the last of his calling on this earth. He had been struggling with how to create on canvas a memorial to someone he loved. Over and over he tried to paint his pain, but it never satisfied him.
One evening Thomas goes to him and in tears thanks him for his friendship and help and pleads with him not to give up. He then lights a small candle and leaves it on the table. After he leaves, Glen, inspired by the small flame, picks up his brush and creates one last masterpiece.
Of course the next day is Christmas and the old man trudges through the snow all the way to the Kinkad cottage (OK, this part of the story is probably imagination, but it certainly brought more tears.).
He came to give this last work of art to the Kinkad family as a Christmas gift. The piece was a beautiful painting of fall leaves with the brilliance of the sky and the light flooding through. And then, with a gnarled arthritic hand he reached up and rubbed Thomas cheek and told him:
"Paint the light, Thomas, paint the light."
The old artist goes on to explain that leaves grow and become green and then turn colors and finally fall away. But the light .... the light is always there. Paint the light! He encouraged Thomas to look at the light and not the dark.
Thomas Kinkad went on to become known as the "Painter of Light." For years his paintings warmed and inspired the hearts of many people, including me. That revelation was dropped in his heart at the beginning of his career by someone who was only days away from going home. I find that incredibly encouraging.
Glen was old. He was weak and dying. Many days he could not talk intelligently. And yet, in that state, he was able to receive a revelation of light and pass it along to the next generation.
As long as we have breath, we have something to give.
Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is n o variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17
