"The Ancient of Days"

by Scott Zambelli 

I've always liked elephants.  I don't know why, but there is something about them that just identifies with me.  Like I said...I don't know why.

A little while back, I was sitting and trying to decided what my next picture should be.  I was feeling a bit uninspired.  Every idea I had, I just didn't "feel" it.  I would do a couple sketches of something and then decide to scrap it. 

After spending some time going through the same process and getting nowhere with it, I decided to reach out for inspiration through others.  I decided to get rid of what I wanted to draw and reflect on what others had been saying.  Once I did this, I realized that there had been many requests recently for another animal drawing.

Once I was able to make a decision of the general subject matter, I began to go through a bunch of animal photos on the internet.  I was trying to figure out which animal was the untapped inspiration I was trying to find.  Photo after photo, I went through a large number of species.  Each not feeling right...that is...until I came across a photo of an elephant.

The photo was a closeup of an elephants eyes.  It captured me immediately and I found the spark of inspiration I so badly needed.  There was something captivating about the eyes of the elephant.  Something I never really took the time to think about.

As I looked into the eyes of the elephant, I felt so many things.  I felt as if I was looking upon something (or someone) very ancient.  The wrinkled and scarred flesh that surrounded those eyes spoke to me.  The words that came to me were ancient, endurance, perseverance, and tested.

These words all felt true, but I could tell I was still missing something.  The elephant's skin spoke these things, but it wasn't complete.  I knew I was missing something.

It was the eyes.

When I began to focus on the eyes, I began to feel other words.  Those words were wisdom, strength, kindness, and something else.

I kept looking.  What was that feeling I was getting?  Then I realized it.  The eyes also held in them a kind of deep sorrow that underscored all of the other attributes I previously felt.

These were the eyes of God.

Not in a literal sense.  But in a symbolic sense.  I imagine that this is how God looks upon each and everyone of us - as a species and as individuals.  He looks upon us in this manner because He knows the greatness that we were created for...and the depths to which we have fallen.

God is as ancient as ancient could be for he is the Creator.  This is why I titled this picture, "The Ancient of Days".  It is one of the many names the Bible uses to describe God. 

From there, I found many other reference photos and began to plan my picture.  After a couple of rough sketches, I decided upon one of them and was able to create the final picture you see here.  Since I felt the inspiration for this picture through the eyes of the elephant...which led me back to God.  I felt it appropriate to find a matching scripture to accompany this piece.   

The scripture I decided upon was;

"With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days, understanding.  With Him are wisdom and strength; He hath counsel and understanding." - Job 12:12-13

After a couple of months had passed, I felt another inspiration with this picture.  It had to do with the continent of Africa...which worked well since this was an African Bull Elephant.

I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate Africa into the picture, but I was not sure how.  I decided to begin with some research on Africa and the history of its name.  I found many different theories of its origin, but most were created in the last few hundred years.  I wanted to see what the oldest record said.

In my discovery, I decided to place some of my findings into the artwork for the coffee mugs...making the mugs both artistic and educational.  Here's the summary I decided to come up with from my research:

Africa is the world's second largest continent after Asia. There are many modern-day theories of how the name "Africa" originated, but the oldest record of this comes from the 1st century Jewish historian Flavious Josephus.  He asserted that it was named for Epher, the grandson of Abraham written about in Genesis 25:4, whose decendants, the historian recorded, had invaded Libya.  In Roman times, Carthage became the capital of the Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Romans added the suffix "-ca" to the name to denote "country or land".

With this research, I have been able to determine that the original name was Epher's Land...or "Epherca".  Over time, as various cultures and languages lost track of the origins of the name, it probably evolved into a more phonetiic spelling of its name.  (This is my theory on how it would change from Epherca to Africa).

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