A Glimpse of Eternityনমুনা

The Fort of L'Esseillon, Val de la Maurienne
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER

France, 1835-36, Watercolor, Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/343384

Thoughts to Begin

I am more deeply known than I can imagine.
God knows the longings of our hearts better than we can fathom.

And He is their end.

For the next few days, we are going to sit with pairings of art and Scripture. Art because this medium of expression tends to reveal some of the deepest parts of the human experience - those parts we cannot articulate in words. Scripture because its pages hold stories, prayers, and poetry that reveal God’s character, His heart, and His design for humanity. When we look at two such things side by side, we get this fitting together of puzzle pieces: the longings of human souls and a glimpse of the God for whom we were made. God not only knows the desires of our hearts, but He is where they are fulfilled. Eugene Peterson presents this verse in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, “The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less” (The Message, 2 Cor. 5.5).

As we take time with the art pieces to follow, we get to look not only for what bits of heaven were put in the artists’ hearts but also for what is stirred up in our own hearts that God may have planted to draw us toward Himself.

Opening Prayer

Lord, please draw my attention to the good, true, and beautiful in this artist’s work.

Open my mind to realize connections between the captivating elements of this painting and my core yearnings.

Stir within me those yearnings that expose how my soul longs to be with You for every moment of this life and for eternity.

Thoughts to reflect upon as you read the passage from 2 Corinthians on the next page:

The desire Paul expresses in this passage is not to someday throw off his earthly body, to rid himself of the ragged brokenness of this world, but is rather to be further clothed. His longing is for more: for the fullness for which we were designed. This unmet longing is a burden itself - the lack somehow bearing weight on our souls. The desire to throw ourselves into the vastness of Turner’s mountains in The Fort of L'Esseillon, to be enveloped by such wonder and beauty and grounded in something realer than reality, awakens a similar ache: the tension between our limits in this human existence and our encouragement that all that restlessness assures us we were made by and for our Creator. All will find its place as we continue walking with Him. “[W]hile we are still in this tent, we groan…that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

Closing Prayer

God, please draw my eye to beautiful moments as I go through this day, and help me to soak them in for as long as I can before they or I move on.

God, please increase my awareness of You as the object of any longings I feel to be seen, to be loved, to hold onto beauty and know what is true.