The customer I designed these gates for wanted an African theme.   The idea came to me at two in the morning one night when I woke up and just started sketching.   It was during the time my wife was soon to give birth to our second child.   Meanwhile my uncle was dying.  So in the wee hours while I sat there drawing I thought a lot about seasons and change and life and death.  In the quiet night I was reminded of how pointless life is without knowing God.   Which is the whole point of a book in the bible called Ecclesiastes.   The writer of the book, ancient Israel's king Solomon, had tried just about everything under the sun and found it was all pointless without God.   And so in the gate design, the huge circles represent the sun and the cyclical nature of time.   The hand forged silhouette of a dove flying through the sun represents God who gives meaning to all life.   My customer loved the design but does not know what ideas in my mind inspired it.

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