The Amazing Voyage of Life
Old Age -- Impending Death
Background: A print cannot possibly capture the intimate detail in Cole's "Old Age" in the series of the Voyage of Life. Keep in mind that the canvass is 52x77--massive! In this panel, notice that the familiar hour glass is gone. Is this old age, impending death, or death itself? The guardian angel present for the birth has returned. It no longer guides the boat because the water is tranquil and calm. The direction of the angel is upward (isn't that where angels go!) and towards the light. Now, look carefully and you will see at least one angel descending in the light to greet the traveler. Can you see it? In the original painting, the light is filled with angels, finely detailed as vessels of light in the failing dark of life itself.
Reflection: Old age is sometimes experienced as a failing of the senses--it leaves the world detached from senior citizens. Where is the light to be found for those who loose their senses and become detached? Some would say that we can be angels to the elderly, allowing them to see and hear through our senses. Those who have experienced hospice may well know their staff as angels of light, walking with loved ones to the edge where they can let go in peace.
Psalm 139 parallels the Voyage of Life marvelously. Sacred words from the psalmist flow in the river of life in each of these magnificent panels.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.
Psalm 139 parallels the Voyage of Life marvelously. Sacred words from the psalmist flow in the river of life in each of these magnificent panels.
Psalm 139 The Ever Present God
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment