I painted this as a gift to honor my late pastor and mentor for a season of my life. Bob and his wife Lori are bright lights in a dark world and have inspired greatness in me and thousands of others.

I met Bob when I was 15 years old and started attending the highschool youth group at Water of Life church when Dave Mcdaniel was the leader. I was a damaged soul ripe with rebellion and quick with my tongue at that age which caused the leaders of the Wednesday night group to ask me to leave a few times. Bob always went the extra mile to connect with me, talk with me and get to know me and what was going on in my life. Over the years he continued to take the time to meet with me and invest in me and God used him to speak into my life giving me words of advice or encouragement that I needed to hear at that moment or season.

I had gotten the canvas out and was prepared to paint something to add to my sea creature collection when I read that Bob Bryant had passed. I felt the familiar tug on my heart letting me know that there was more for me to be a part of and I felt that I was supposed to paint a Blue Whale and it was to be a gift to Lori Bryant to honor Bob. I reached out to Lori and asked her if Bob had a favorite animal or color. She responded that she didn’t know of any specific animal that would have been Bobs’ favorite but, they had just spent their sabbatical in Hawaii and he fell in love with the whales that were all over off the shores in the area on their migration route. They had watched them every day and took all kinds of pictures which she had framed and put up in the house. So I went to work and asked God for words to give Lori with the painting which I wrote in a poem. When I visited Lori to give her the painting she read the poem and as the tears came she told me just how accurate the words were. She recounted the story of how they were given the time off and vacation to Hawaii for their sabbatical and the prayers and words spoken over them there about being like the whales that they had fallen in love with. Some of the words I wrote were the same as others had spoken over them during their trip. It was quite an emotional experience for everyone as we shared stories and memories remembering one of the great souls of our time. Such a cool confirmation that I heard correctly.