Voyage of Life in Stage Three

The church service started out well with upbeat music and I was enjoying the harmonies of the large chorus at Scottsdale Bible Church when a well-dressed middle-aged woman, slim and well-coiffed, suddenly bounced into the pew in front of us and began singing loudly and clapping with her hands over her head as though she were at a rock concert.

That would have been enough to annoy me, but then she started singing embellishments on the pop Christian song that we were singing, in effect doing a solo.

I whispered to my husband that I wished that "Diana Ross" over there would cool it. He said he thought it was great that someone with a good voice was that into the service. Later, I explained to him why it was inappropriate. Jesus even said that people shouldn't show off at services, emphasizing their piousness or making sure other people saw how much money they donated. Church is a place to worship together, because the spirit is present when people gather in His name. It is not a place for egos or self-promotion or extravagant shows. Now this is not to say that I don't enjoy a U2-charist concert with rock music in a special evening. Or a gathering that's meant to inspire people with music, clapping and exuberant sermons. But rocking out on Sunday morning just doesn't set well with me. Maybe I'm getting old and cranky, but I'm more in a pious mindset of meditation then.

Anyway, the reason I mention this is because it sparked much discussion later, and made me wonder about the woman, who attended church alone. Was she celebrating her recent conversion? Was she grateful that she survived cancer? Was she a mentally unbalanced person who was seeking attention? There's no way of knowing where she was coming from, but the sermon on the series of paintings called "The Voyage of Life" brought these possibilities to mind.

In the sermon, the minister, Jamie Rasmussen, spoke about how he was in Washington, D.C. at the National Gallery killing time and not much appreciating the artwork, until he stumbled onto the series of four paintings by Thomas Cole called "The Voyage of Life." He spoke about how Cole painted the original series for a patron who demanded that they be painted a certain way, against Cole's wishes. Later, Cole repainted the series for himself, in the way that he originally conceived it.

A born-again Christian late in life, Cole took the subject of life's journey from the Christian perspective in his last set of paintings, which became wildly popular in their day. Not only were the paintings displayed throughout Europe and in the large cities of the nascent United States, but they were one of the few paintings of the era to be made into prints and sold in this country. Cole, one of the most famous of the Hudson River school of artists, died of an unknown cause in 1848 at only age 47, leaving a wife and five children behind.

In the first painting, Childhood, a baby is in a boat with an angel steering it. The world is drenched in golden light, flowers are blooming and everything is peaceful and beautiful. In the second painting, Youth, the teenager has taken over steering and has left the angel onshore, waving goodbye, as he heads toward a misty castle in the sky. In the third painting, Manhood, the man in the boat is kneeling and praying as he heads toward rough waters under a dark sky. An angel watches from far away in the sky. In the last painting, Old Age, the angel appears to the gray-haired man in a glow of light that leads into the sky and, presumably, eternity at the end of the voyage.

The journey is filled with joy and sorrow, all at the same time, Pastor Rasmussen said, citing stories and scripture describing some examples. He also emphasized that though the journey seems long, it's over before you know it, as the Psalms passage explains:

"As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer."--Psalms 103:15-16.

Most importantly, and in the painting that brought him the most angst, Cole believed that middle age was when people realized their need for God the most, because life brings them to their knees at one time or another. His rich patron, who was proud and reliant on his wealth, did not want the man to be kneeling in the boat and insisted that Cole paint him standing proudly in his version.

As the minister put it, the voyage is not one that we take alone. We were made by God and God is with us. Whether we choose to make God part of our lives or not determines how well we make the voyage and ultimately, how it ends. As for me, the voyage has been so much better with God along for the ride, I can't imagine trying to survive the rapids without Him.