December 9: The Ways of God
♫ Music:
Day 7 - Saturday, December 09
Title: THE WAYS OF GOD
Scripture: Isaiah 55:6–13 (NKJV)
Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
Poetry & Poet:
“i thank you God for most this amazing day”
by E.E. Cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
THE WAYS OF GOD
When I read E.E. Cummings’ poem, “i thank You God for most this amazing day'' I feel like I am walking into Matisse’s painting: following the brushstrokes of indigo, pink, and green stepping toward the “leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky…” The shimmer of light. The glimmer. Yellow turned to yellow orange to yellow green. Oranges and pinks dancing, and bold strokes of trees cerulean blue and cyan. This painting, Landscape at Collioure, was one of several he painted during the summer of 1905 of the French city of Collioure. Matisse’s use of color is joyful and exuberant. For Matisse, color was not contingent on the actual color of the object or landscape he was painting. Matisse was pushing beyond what he had previously done, bringing new life to his work.
Isaiah 55:6-13 is also about new life. Like rain coming down, this new life is God’s promise to us, our hope. In The Hutchmoot Podcast, Trees at the Heart of Creation, Tim Mackie, of the Bible Project, explains the context of Isaiah 55:
Isaiah 55 comes at this key juncture in the plotline of the book of Isaiah: Israel is being given this offer to come back from Babylon, to inhabit the land after all its years of failure having been unfaithful to God. In those chapters of Isaiah around it, the new land is described with the vocabulary of the new Garden of Eden. So the whole question is whether Israel is going to trust God’s word that He can create a new Eden out of the desolation of Babylon.
Mackie goes on to explain that Isaiah 55 reads on multiple levels: the historical reading and the personal reading. We all experience losses and devastations and the question is do we trust God’s promise to us that He will bring new life out of our loss? Do I trust God with my loss? Do I trust He will bring new life out of it? These questions I have felt deeply this past year and half. I continue to grieve the loss of my Dad. But my Dad planted trees. He understood the cycles of life and death and new life. This year, I completed a drawing of the myrtle tree that stands outside my window. The myrtle tree is referenced in Isaiah 55: “Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This miracle will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; it will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.” My drawing is a marker of loss and at the same time a symbol of hope.
When I read EE Cummings poem, “i thank God for this amazing day,” I feel like I understand the poem through an all together knowing. Taking in the words all at the same time rather than in a linear and chronological way. Like what it is to stand by a tree, to sit under its shade, to observe its leaves fall, and flowers bud. Cummings played with grammar and syntax, so the different order of words feels unexpected, but the lack of punctuation or differently ordered words orient us to hear and see the poem and its meaning in a new light.
On this seventh day of Advent, as we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christ’s birth, may we trust the new life that God promises us will come out of loss. May we experience the vibrancy of this new life like color that does not necessarily match the subject being painted. May we understand God’s work in our lives in an altogether knowing so our ears and eyes are opened. May we, like the Myrtle Tree, sprout up and grow where briers once grew. God’s word is true, it will accomplish what it is meant to, it will not return void.
Prayer
Jesus, I thank you that you are my hope.
Bring new life to me today.
Help me to see beyond my normal way of seeing.
Help me to trust You beyond my normal way of knowing.
Like the rain that comes down to water the earth,
that causes trees to grow and produce fruit, so are your ways in my life.
Amen.
Kari Dunham
Adjunct Professor of Art
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art #1:
Landscape at Collioure
Henri Matisse
1905
Oil on canvas
38.8 x 46.6 cm.
Museum of Modern Art
New York, New York
Landscape at Collioure reflects the point at which Matisse began to use a more instinctive, spontaneous way of painting, unparalleled among his contemporaries. The landscapes he painted in the summer of 1905 were “wilder, more reckless than any subsequently produced in his career,” according to Matisse scholar and former MoMA curator John Elderfield. “In the works of that period color speaks for itself with a directness previously unknown in Western painting, and speaks directly too of the emotional response to the natural world that required changing the color of this world the better to render that emotion.”
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/henri-matisse-landscape-at-collioure-1905/
About the Artist #1:
Henri Émile Benoit Matisse (1869–1954) was a French artist known for both his use of color and his fluid and unique draftsmanship. He was a printmaker and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best defined the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. The intense colorism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the group of artists known as the Fauves. Many of his finest works were created after 1906, when he developed a rigorous style that emphasized flattened forms and decorative patterns. In 1917, he relocated to a suburb of Nice on the French Riviera, and the more relaxed style of his work during the 1920s gained him critical acclaim as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse
About the Art #2:
Pilgrimage to the Cedars of Lebanon
Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka
Oil on canvas
1907
200 × 192 cm
Hungarian National Gallery
Budapest, Hungary
Artist Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka was a prolific world traveler and Lebanon’s cedar trees undoubtedly left a deep impression on him. These evergreen trees have a deep religious and cultural significance in the Middle East, and have appeared in a number of myths and stories. In this powerful painting, the artist presented a number of cedars growing harmoniously alongside each other amidst the pilgrimage festivities. The symbolism stems from the trees’ strong religious association. Cedars play an important role in ancient Hungarian mythology as a symbol of fertility; they were assumed to be the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage_to_the_Cedars_in_Lebanon
https://thoughtsonpapyrus.com/2022/07/25/the-art-of-tivadar-csontvary-kosztka/
About the Artist #2:
Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (1853–1919) was a Hungarian painter who was part of the avant-garde movement of the early twentieth century. Working mostly in Budapest, he was one of the first Hungarian painters to become known in Europe. He belonged to no specific school of art, but his works included elements similar to those of the foremost painters of Postimpressionism. A pharmacist by profession, he had a vision that he would become a renowned painter when he was close to thirty and after that vowed to stop at nothing “to fulfill his destiny.” However, Kosztka was not popular with his contemporaries and achieved most of his recognition only after his death, with his paintings now forming part of Hungary’s national treasure. His works are held by the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest and the Csontváry Museum in Pécs, among other institutions and private collectors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivadar_Csontv%C3%A1ry_Kosztka
About the Music:
“All the Trees of the Field” from the album Seven Swans
Lyrics:
If I am alive this time next year.
Will I have arrived in time to share?
And mine is about as good this far,
And I'm still applied to what you are
And I am joining all my thoughts to you
And I'm preparing every part for you
And I heard from the trees a great parade
And I heard from the hills a band was made
And will I be invited to the sound?
And will I be a part of what you've made?
And I am throwing all my thoughts away
And I'm destroying every bet I've made
And I am joining all my thoughts to you
And I'm preparing every part for you
About the Composer/Performer:
Sufjan Stevens (1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations. His debut album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he cofounded with his stepfather. He received wide recognition for his 2005 album, Illinois, which hit number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago" from that album. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for "Mystery of Love." Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of The Age of Adz and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording. Stevens' music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality. Stevens' tenth and latest studio album, A Beginner's Mind, was created alongside Angelo De Augustine and released in 2021. In 2023 he recorded a ballet soundtrack entitled Reflections with Timo Andres, and Conor Hanick.
https://sufjan.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufjan_Stevens
About the Poetry and Poet:
Edward Estlin "E. E." Cummings (1894–1962) was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He wrote two autobiographical novels, four plays, several essays, and approximately 2,900 poems. He received his B.A. in 1915 and his M.A. in 1916, both from Harvard University. His studies there introduced him to the poetry of avant-garde writers such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. In his work, Cummings experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax—he abandoned traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic poetic style. He attained great popularity, especially among young readers, for the simplicity of his language and his playful experimentation. During his lifetime, Cummings received a number of honors, including an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship at Harvard, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, and a Ford Foundation Grant.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e-e-cummings
https://poets.org/poet/e-e-cummings
About the Devotion Author:
Kari Dunham
Adjunct Professor of Art
Biola University
Kari Dunham is an adjunct art professor at Biola University, Concordia University in Irvine, and Irvine Valley College. Dunham earned her M.F.A. in painting from Laguna College of Art + Design. Through her practice of painting ordinary inanimate objects, she gives voice to the quiet corners and objects of the home, describing the “thingness” that is these objects and how they embody human presence and absence. Kari has also written for SEEN, the semiannual publication of CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts).