My name is Esté. I believe that I was purposefully created, however this calling and my testimony is not about me. It’s all about my Heavenly Father. The purposeful Creator.
I studied B Dietetics at the University of Pretoria. In my final year I married the most wonderful husband, John, at the young age of 21. I worked as a dietetics practician, I presented a cooking school for domestic workers and I am a bookkeeper for my husband’s business, but my main commitment has always been motherhood. And I must say, raising our children is the most rewarding “career” that I have pursued so far!
My life took an “unexpected” turn on the 4th of April 2011 when our fourth child, Gustaff Ben-David, was born. Without my knowledge, a disrupted vein caused extreme blood loss while I was giving birth to him. Gustaff was born without a pulse. I was fighting for my life. I can vividly remember the ER medics rushing me to theatre to stop the blood that was gushing out of my body. I can remember how the nurse kept my head in her hands. She looked me straight in the eyes, begging me to please keep my eyes open. I repeatedly said, “I don’t want to die now…please!”
And then there was nothing.
I woke up a few days later. I was full of drips and pipes, overwhelmed by confusion… What happened? Where was my son? My wonderful husband was by my side and told me what unfolded in the past few days. He told me how the doctors fought for my life, and almost lost me at some point. How everybody was fighting the battle in prayer- It was a war in the heavenlies!
However, I felt like my testimony was someone else’s story that I didn’t feel part of. The Lord miraculously saved me and Gustaff’s life without me doing anything or fighting in prayer.
I was then reminded of a promise I wrote down in my journal, at the beginning of that year. “This is the year that the Lord will fight for us,” exactly like David sang in Psalm 18 when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies.
From verse 5:
The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help….
Later in verse 14:
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
I couldn’t think of a better description of what happened in the heavenlies on that day: the 4th of April 2011. My life was changed forever.
Life happened, and raising our four children kept us busy. But I always had this thought in my mind: Was my work on earth not done? Why was I saved?
When Gustaff was three years old in 2014, I decided to join an art class to learn how to paint. Although I never had any formal training as an artist, I was always in my happy place whenever I held a paint brush in my hands- even if it was to paint a cupboard or doing decoupage as a hobby. I was convinced that I cannot draw or paint on a canvas, because I felt that was for “artistic people”. Joining the art class was quite a bold step from my side.
It’s now more or less ten years that I ‘ve been painting on the sideline. And the one thing I know for sure is: TO CREATE GIVES ME PURPOSE. It really does!
During the course of our lives, all of us question our purpose and calling on earth. Recently, I was revisiting those thoughts of mine after the Lord restored my life. Why was I saved on the 4th of April 2011?
Well, though I still don’t have the exact answer to that question, I rest in knowing that to CREATE GIVES me PURPOSE. Each painting is a testimony of my belief in the power of scripture. My prayer is that it will encourage someone or remind them of a promise in God’s Word. We are here to glorify His name, and my prayer is that I will do that with the art I create.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Col 3:23-24