Tears for Ida
To support hurricane Ida victims, please visit Brooks Fredericks Hurricane Ida Relief Art Sale
New York was shocked by the impact of Hurricane Ida. It devastated Louisiana. It directly hit Huma, the hometown of my former art professor, Brooks Fredericks (see his art fundraiser). As it travelled north, it flooded Philadelphia and New York. Tragic drownings happened from south to north under its fury.
You may believe in a god through nature. You may have been awed by the starry night or the infinite horizon or the work of a honey bee and come to believe in a Creator behind all of this. This is a “general knowledge of God.” Paul says in Romans 1 that God’s “invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). But general knowledge of God is not knowing God. If the general knowledge of God is all we have then we might look at Ida and conclude that God hates us. Look at the horrors of Ida, the earthquakes in Haiti, the global pandemic. Nature often shows us God’s power but not his mercy. To know his mercy, you must know a person.
God knows we need more than a general knowledge of him. He has given us specific, personal knowledge of him too. The 16th Century monk, Martin Luther, said nature will not lead you to God. It is too broken. Our conclusions are too. He must come to you. This is what Jesus did: Jesus revealed God specifically, personally, benevolently, self-sacrificially. Luther explained that Jesus is God’s “special” revelation. Jesus alone reveals what God “proposes concerning us, what he wants to give and to do so that he might deliver us from sin and death, and to save us – which is the proper and the true knowledge of God.”[1] When I look at nature, I might conclude God is impersonal, violent, destructive. That’s a mirror of our own hearts rather than his. That is why we need Jesus to show us God’s intention for us, God’s proper work. Jesus said, “If you had known me, you would have known the Father, from now on you do know him and have seen him,” (John 14:7). He calmed the storm and saved his friends. Twice. (Mark 4:35-41 and John 6:16-21). Yet he surrendered himself completely to the worst storm of all:
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5).
David Watson was an Anglican pastor, artist and evangelist who wrote a book on his dying from cancer, Fear No Evil. He believed he would be healed this side of heaven. He was not. However, his faith journey serves anyone suffering even more because of it - due to the hope that sustained him and gave him peace. He said that suffering does not trouble an atheist (in an existential sense, not in the physical sense) because there is already no meaning to the collision of atoms he would call life. Nor does suffering trouble someone who believes in an aloof, capricious god, because it would be expected. . Suffering only troubles those who believe in a good God.[2] Suffering does trouble someone like me. And that is good because it brings me back to God. There the Spirit of God goes to work, bringing our full lament—anger, sadness, helplessness, longing—out of isolation and into the Lord’s attentive ears. The Spirit stirs faith to bring our complaint to God, to remind him of his promise. He has born our grief. He knows our sorrows. He has conquered death on our behalf. When I look at the victims, I look to Christ’s scars. I cry out, “Redeem this, Lord.” He who upholds creation responds, “I have and I will.”
As I painted in the aftermath of the hurricane, I found my hands lamenting through paint. I heard the Lord’s comfort too. This is “Tears for Ida.”
Tears for Ida, Kate Norris
Watercolor on paper, 11”x14”
To support hurricane Ida victims, please visit Brooks Fredericks Hurricane Ida Relief Art Sale
[1] Alister McGrath, ed, “2.16 Martin Luther on Revelation in Christ,” The Christian Theology Reader, 3rd Ed, Malden, MA: Blackwell, pg.96.
[2] David Watson, Fear No Evil: One Man Deals with Terminal Illness, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007, p.111.