Art Helps

I was reminded this morning of a painter I once truly admired but had long since allowed too drift into the forgotten recesses of my heart.  His works spoke deeply to me of someone who could actually feel the earth as God allows few others to see it, at once able to capture the great “groaning as in the pains of childbirth” of the fall all the while seeing the “hills full of horses and chariots of fire.”  Remembered artists and art can help you into The Throne Room.  Praise God for memory storage.   

Moonlight Marine by Albert Pinkham Ryder,
thanks to Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness' book
Modern Art and the Life of A Culture which
brought him back to the forefront of my attention.  

The Great Garden Mysteries of The Divine Paths of Life

There is a battle for life, to live well one must often wage up against the forces that would cause us harm, one must take up the fight, accept the blows and wounds and scars that come.  An existence unmarked by the ferocity of life is often lived with pleasure but eventually there will be no well to draw from which one can drink the nourishment of the meanings of being alive.  When one is old the scars upon their naked body will testify to a life of prolonged and consistent communion with God who bore them up often and carried them through the Great Garden Mysteries of The Divine paths of life. 

Abnormally Abnormal Normal

Looking back now I realize that I was being somewhat disingenuous when I offered to pray for those who were facing very difficult circumstances.  What I never knew until now was the painful grind of the abnormally abnormal new normal.  The leaving, the needles, the vast array of new numbers each meaning real meaning, the words that are invented for real danger, bitterness and sorrow, joy upon Joy, food at all hours, and praying in a cage you can’t pray yourselves out of;

…when everyday lived is one you don’t have to live through again and everyday lived is one you were alive.  

Plowing In The Dark

Often The Word is read in the early morning and forgotten before the sun comes up.  How can Words of God be so elusive, like a butterfly in a whirlwind?  There is a state of gratefulness, which blooms only at dawn after plowing and planting in doubt in the dark.   

A barge plowing up our river in front of our dock.  Night Moves!

Fire Is On His Resume

Regularly rising and building a fire to ease the chill off the morning is one of the most sincere acts of humans and greatest gifts of The Great Ancient.  Humans were made for fire; it is part of the personal relationship with its Inventor.