Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
I bet you know what it can be like to stand under a crystal clear sky at night. There may be a hint of crispness in the air that makes everything seem clean and refreshing. It's the kind of night we all imagine when we think of shepherds startled by singing angels in the sky. So you look up, perhaps to see if the angels really are there. And suddenly you see the sky like you've seldom seen it before. It's not just the same old dark night sky tonight. Instead, the blackness is a deep, rich, velvet blue that is more bottomless than any ocean. The stars are not mere spots of light but are brilliant, magical diamonds that dance and twirl like tiny ballerinas. In just this special moment, the sky is somehow alive, and it seems to speak to you silently about the meaning of infinity. Oh, how wonderful it would be if you could preserve this moment, so you could return to it again and again!
But there's more going on here than just that. Van Gogh painted this in the midst of an incurable, debilitating disease -- one for which there seemed to be no cure. We can easily imagine that his despair -- with no hope of escaping his prison to true freedom. We can easily imagine it because each of us has faced our own personal prison, whether it be disease, the loss of a loved one, financial woes, addiction, or any number of the other of life's troubles that make us wonder whether God knows of our suffering; whether He really ever will deliver us from affliction. In such moments it's tempting to surrender to the despair.
Looking at this painting, can you see van Gogh in just such a moment of hopelessness? And then he looks out on one of those amazing night skies. He feels that sense that he is not alone; that there is a living, infinite, loving God who sees us and knows us by name. A God whose awesome creation reminds us, sometimes, that He has never left our side.
And so the sky swirls across the canvas full of vitality and power that speaks of God's presence. The stars don't just sparkle; they explode in radiance. The earth itself responds to the movement in the heavens, forming its own living waves in the mountains and the rolling trees beneath them. In the sleepy village, the windows of the houses glow with the same light that illuminates the universe. The church steeple in the center struggles to point to God, who is so alive in this scene. But its meager efforts are dwarfed by the cypress trees at the left, which capture the joy of the inhabited creation around them by straining upwards toward God, even erupting in a living flame of praise.
What a tremendous message of hope there is in this masterpiece! Even if our troubles persist, the world around us assures us that God has heard His people cry, and has acted to calm our fears, heal our hurts, and dry our tears. That's what those angels sang about.
Can you hear them?
But there's more going on here than just that. Van Gogh painted this in the midst of an incurable, debilitating disease -- one for which there seemed to be no cure. We can easily imagine that his despair -- with no hope of escaping his prison to true freedom. We can easily imagine it because each of us has faced our own personal prison, whether it be disease, the loss of a loved one, financial woes, addiction, or any number of the other of life's troubles that make us wonder whether God knows of our suffering; whether He really ever will deliver us from affliction. In such moments it's tempting to surrender to the despair.
Looking at this painting, can you see van Gogh in just such a moment of hopelessness? And then he looks out on one of those amazing night skies. He feels that sense that he is not alone; that there is a living, infinite, loving God who sees us and knows us by name. A God whose awesome creation reminds us, sometimes, that He has never left our side.
And so the sky swirls across the canvas full of vitality and power that speaks of God's presence. The stars don't just sparkle; they explode in radiance. The earth itself responds to the movement in the heavens, forming its own living waves in the mountains and the rolling trees beneath them. In the sleepy village, the windows of the houses glow with the same light that illuminates the universe. The church steeple in the center struggles to point to God, who is so alive in this scene. But its meager efforts are dwarfed by the cypress trees at the left, which capture the joy of the inhabited creation around them by straining upwards toward God, even erupting in a living flame of praise.
What a tremendous message of hope there is in this masterpiece! Even if our troubles persist, the world around us assures us that God has heard His people cry, and has acted to calm our fears, heal our hurts, and dry our tears. That's what those angels sang about.
Can you hear them?
If this is meaningful to you, feel free to keep the artcoin, or place it in another cache to share it with someone else. Whether it's meaningful to you or not, I'd really like to hear from you about your reaction. If you get a chance, send me a note
Want to know more about how God speaks to us through visual art?
Check out Art to Heart: Encounters with God in the world's great art
Check out Art to Heart: Encounters with God in the world's great art