‘Jonah and the whales’
Hi,
Today some whales, painted by my friend Leonie Macmillan, during this time of the virus.
Leo is a ceramic artist who lives near St Andrews. She designed and made the fonts in both St Salvator’s and St Leonard’s Chapels, and shows her work in the Pittenweem Arts Festival (cancelled this year, sadly). Last year she and I shared the venue in Pittenweem, for her ceramics and paintings, and my photographs. Here is a lovely sketch of another whale.
If you like this work, have a look at more on twitter: https://twitter.com/Siriceramics?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Enjoying these images made me think of Jonah’s prayer from the belly of a whale (though the Hebrew just says it was a big fish). It’s really beautiful in the King James Version, and somehow calls to mind the situation for many people today, constrained, isolated, perhaps feeling enclosed at home, and afflicted.
Jonah 2:1-9
2 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
Thank you to all involved in today’s zoomed University service. It’s so lovely to feel this community joining together even if we feel trapped inside the belly of a whale…
Yours,
Donald.