Last night, as I was going to bed, I checked Facebook to see if there were any updates on Lungs4Jens and found this:
I felt like a kid on the night before Christmas upon reading this.
You walked a whole mile, Jens?!!?
WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Seriously, this is cause for staying up all night and partying.
But I had a little self-control and was able to fall asleep last night after a bit of pinching myself.
After a good night of sleep, I woke up this morning to find this email message I get weekly on Sundays with a mediation about a piece of art:
ArtWay Visual Meditation June 15, 2014
Interlaced with Light
by Anikó Ouweneel-Tóth
Imre Szakács is, in his own words, a ‘visual writer’. He is one of the most important artists in Hungary today making religious artworks. His visual language is very recognizable. He is known for his dramatic paintings with mysterious symbolism and surrealistic traits.
I have known him since I was a child and the last time I visited Hungary I went to see Imre and his wife once again. They live in a self-designed and largely self-built house in the artists’ town of Szentendre, close to Budapest. The house reflects who they are: warm and inviting, strong and authentic, humble and genuine.
One of Imre Szakács’ paintings, Mustard Seed from 2009, inspired Anna Jókai, the grand lady of Hungarian literature, to write her story Togetherness. In her book she deals with what gives meaning to life, solidarity and comfort, inspired by this painting. This made me curious about the work, hence I went to see the work at the house of its owner. It turned out she was about to create a special space for this painting in her new house! We walked to her living room and there it was… Mustard Seed.
What happens when you are confronted with a painting that is so loaded with meaning? It makes you stop in your tracks and look carefully. The image takes hold of you, makes the world stand still. And then music starts to play in your soul, while the strings of your own story are being touched. The artist’s experience of life, imaginative force and skill come to life, divine inspiration does its work and awakens what lies hidden deep within you. Your deepest longings for the fullness of life are aroused by a hopeful promise breaking through into an often painful reality. In the image unfulfilled longings are released and fulfilled.
That’s how I stand before this painting, a light and elegant creation, painted with great technical skill. I look through a window of stone-like cool colours. Behind it I sense a warm light, which glistens here and there through the seemingly hard window frame. I see young slender branches waving back and forth. Mustard Seed, I remind myself. A wave of inspiration washes over me.
A kind of whirlwind, windpipe or pillar of fire descends in the centre of the canvas. It breaks the static window open. Life radiates from it. Light is breathed out over the earth. The seed sprouts and grows into branches interlaced with light. Out of and into the light grow these branches, nourished by the same source, nurtured by life-giving vertical and horizontal relationships. That’s how huge a tiny seed with a little light and water can become.
The image seems organic. It lives, moves, blows and bathes in the red-orange-yellow-golden light. It almost looks like a human lung with blood and air streaming through it, bringing life to the remotest places. I look up close and see birds and a nest in the branches. The mustard seed has matured and now gives room to other life. And somewhere in the middle of the branches, in the pillar of light, I think I perceive a face.
So much life has been captured in this concise image! Our confined reality is interlaced with light, wonderful unconquerable life. It cannot but impregnate the earth with hope of restoration and fullness of life. What a relief that I am not the only one who carries this hope deep within me! For thousands of years the earth has been longing for the fulfilment of the promise of restoration:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.
For those who lived in a land of deep shadows –
light! sunbursts of light!...
For a child has been born – for us!
the gift of a son – for us!...
His ruling authority will grow,
and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
(Isaiah 9, The Message)
*******
Imre Szakács: Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31), 2009, mixed media on canvas; 150x130 cm. Private collection Budapest.
I read this right before my run this morning and the image stuck in my mind as I ran and prayed for you. I thought about the parable of the mustard seed and the image of the painting here with life radiating from it. I thought of your mile long walk yesterday through the hospital. Even the description above alludes to the image of a lung. There are signs everywhere that point to God's goodness and fingerprint in all of this, Jens and Abby.
And I marvel and want to kick my heels in the air with joy
that I get to be a witness to this glory before me.
Glory be to God for the gift of your new lungs, for being back in room 9D, for fact that you both can inhale and exhale for the first time in years together, for the hope of a homecoming soon, for the amazing progress and strength and courage that you all have shown lately...
And then tonight at our small group, I checked my phone and saw this and almost screamed with excitement. This painting that I saw this morning immediately came to mind again when I read this. Radiant joy.
Glory. Glory. Glory.
Wishing I could come and cry and laugh and sing and dance with you in this moment.
I love you.
my friend Elizabeth's response to this post after I shared it with her:
"These two things are profoundly wonderful. I love that you and Jens are both sharing photos of your app that tallies your distance. What an amazing symbol across so much distance. I also LOVE that painting as well. I am drawn to it. It evokes a lot of thoughts for me. It is wonderful when art does that."
