I recently revised another of my older cartoons. The cartoon was originally titled “Endurance”. It was first published on the Joyful ‘toons website in 2007, though it is older than that, dating back to the 1990s. I remember the idea was sparked by a message given by a visiting minister at my church. One of the subjects he talked about was endurance, and afterward I thought about how a camel was a picture of endurance. A camel can survive the harsh, hot, dry environment of the desert because it has water stored in it’s hump. I thought of the water as the Word of God, which we should store in our hearts, and which will allow us to endure the hardships of life.

The original cartoon

Usually, the idea for a cartoon comes from my reading, hearing, and thinking about a particular passage of scripture. For this cartoon, I had the idea, but didn’t have any Bible verse in mind. I eventually used James 5:11, which talks about the perseverance of Job, but I wasn’t completely certain it was the best choice. I went ahead and published the cartoon using that verse, and then I didn’t think much about it, until recently, when I was working on a Spanish translation of the cartoon. I decided to re-do the lettering and make the camel and riders a little larger in the picture. While I was at it, I thought I would see if I could find a better verse to go with it. With the help of BibleGateway.com, I believe the Lord lead me to a verse that is a better match for the picture: Romans 15:4.

This verse talks about how the scriptures can teach us, and give us endurance, encouragement, and hope. It seemed to me the verse really went well with the cartoon I had drawn. I hope the cartoon will be an inspiration to those who are in the midst of their own, personal deserts. And if you’re not there, you probably will be at some point. When we find ourselves in a time of trouble, we know we can endure the trials, if we have taken the time to store the Word of God in our hearts. We can find the encouragement and hope that will get us through them, when we turn to the scriptures.

The revised cartoon