Picture This
Guest Writer: Isabel Anders
“Often a star was waiting for you to notice it.” —Rainer Maria Rilke.
Picture This
“The whole of life lies in the word seeing.” —Teilhard de Chardin.
Picture Lucy and Charlie Brown and the famous football. Or Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in a chase. Think of Pooh Bear with his honey pot. Whether we imagine familiar characters facing danger, sudden change, or a welcome turn of events—they will always bring themselves to their “close-up.” They act and reveal truths to us in character.
“The best illustrations catch the light and let it shine through,” wrote Stephanie Duncan Smith. Ezra Pound defined the image as “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.”
Wisdom is found in actual living: photos of heroism, kindness being practiced, and Jesus’ example in all his acts. Gerhard Von Rad, in his classic study Wisdom in Israel, cautions that, too often, modern minds “are asking about ideas and looking for definitions of terms where Israel spoke about facts and described an occurrence” in time:
“Poetic expression [in Israel] was … the expression of an intensive encounter with realities or events.”
—Gerhard Von Rad, Wisdom in Israel.
Many Proverbs, such as “fitting words are like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Prov. 25:11), almost read like scenes in a frame; they are so graphic and specific. They catch a moment and make it into a picture.
Add to this imagery the beauty of their word arrangement. Von Rad further explains that Proverbs usually “do not bother to provide the reader with conceptual definitions which appear indispensable to us”—they instead supply “intense poetic feeling” in their descriptions of human activity.
Proverbs lodge in our minds, feeding us wisdom and welcoming all to her house: “Come and eat my food” and as a “tree of life to all who embrace her.” No wonder such symbols abound in churches’ stained glass windows. An apt picture can sometimes convey more than a multitude of words.
Isabel Anders’ latest book is Twinkle, Twinkle, Shining Star, and Row Your Boat Just as You Are! (M. T. Publishing).
https://mtpublishing.com/product/twinkle-twinkle-shining-star-and-row-your-boat-just-as-you-are/
Joanna joannaseibert.com