Vincent Van Gogh

Everyone knows that Van Gogh was a painter. Painting at left is a self-portrait. What I didn’t know, was that he was also a preacher. I just learned this a couple of days ago as I was reading another one of Ken Gire’s books.

Following is a quote from Life As We Would Want It . . . Life As We Are Given It.

His first pastorate was in a tumbledown town of coal miners, where he lived among them, sharing their poverty, going with them into the mines and into their homes, tending the sick and conducting Sunday services. The sermon I’m thinking about is one he preached in 1876. He told the weary miners that they were strangers on this earth, that all of us were strangers on this earth, fellow travelers on our way home.

Van Gogh talked about the joys and sorrows of that journey, using a painting of an autumn landscape to illustrate his point. In the distance a row of mountains stood hazed in dusk. The peaks splayed the setting sun, . . . . . . Crowning the mountain was a city, flowing in the sunset.

. . . . On the road was a weary traveler, Van Gogh told them, staff in hand, who encountered an angel that had been placed there to encourage those on their way to the eternal city. Then Van Gogh gave the words that he imagined might have passed between them.

“The traveler asked: ‘Does the road go uphill all the way?’

The angel answered: ‘Yes, to the very end.’

And he asked again: ‘And will the journey take all day long?’

The angel said: ‘From morn till night, my friend.’

The traveler journeyed on, sorrowful yet rejoicing. Sorrowful because the road was so steep and long. Rejoicing because the city was so beautiful. As he continued the climb, a quiet prayer rose from his lips:

‘Then I shall be more and more tired . . . but also nearer and nearer to Thee.’

A note about yesterday's post: I'm glad Connie decided to play the meme game. I hope others did as well. We're all finished with the taxes. Did them with TurboTax online and e-filed them. That's the only way to go.