The Land Between

There’s a painting print that hangs in my office.  It is by the Surreal artist Salvador Dali.  There is one part of this painting that will immediately stand out to anyone who views it.  However,  I’m not going to talk about that part yet.  I wish to describe the narrative of the edges of this masterpiece first.

The painting takes us to the edge of a desert.  It’s the end of a No-Man’s Land.   It’s on the outskirts of nothingness.  It’s place of brown dirt or sand.  Nothing is growing there.  There is no road.  There is no path.  There is nothing but the slight rolling dunes.

It is a dead place.

In fact, the only life that is found on the bottom edge of this piece are two lone souls.  You cannot tell for sure, but I get the sense as I look close that they are a male and a female.  They stand together with their backs facing the observer, with their long, lonely shadows stretching out to the lower right corner of the canvas.  One is given the impression that they have been coming from the land that exists beyond the bottom edge.  This is a land where the artist seems to imply a lack of beauty, hope, and life.

And yet, this is not a painting that anyone would attribute to despair.   Let’s focus on the couple for a minute.  No, instead, let’s focus on the couples sight line.   As we follow it, we see something unfold before us.

… It is a path.

Actually, there are two paths.  To the immediate right there is a road that winds into a lush green space between a grove of trees.   The path to the immediate left curves quickly into what appears to be a farm house and barn, and a number of silos.  One can imagine those silos being full of the harvest from the farm lands below.  You see the land as this couple looks out upon it’s fruitfulness and abundance.

Is that a river down there that flows through the rows of farm land?

Is that a lake out there just behind those houses and trees?

Are those rolling hills of green that are replacing the endless sand wastelands?

On top of it all, when we look past the farms and the trees and the flowing water, we notice the yellowing hue of dawn as it stretches over this promised land.  It is already bringing to life the exquisite blue sky with it’s fluffy soft clouds of white.

This one thing we surmise…

… the harsh journey of this couple is coming to a close.

They are walking out of the desert of the land between and into a place that is flowing with milk and honey.

It is a new day for them.

This image is beautiful, is it not?  It contains enough hope and promise simply for what I have described.  Yet, none of this is the central focus the painting is promising.  The painting is not called “Out of the Desert”, nor “The End of the Wastelands”.  No. Instead, the painting is called this…

…”Meditative Rose”

As sure as Salvador Dali is promised to entertain our senses and disturb and delight our expectations, there is something central to this masterpiece that has caused its sensation and thus, its title.  Right smack in the middle of this mid-dawn bright blue sky, something is hanging quite out of place.

It is a massive, beautiful, blood red rose.

No stem.

No sign of Super-gro

Just a giant, floating red rose.  A rose with a single dew drop on its lower petal.

There is no explanation of how this rose got there.  There is no signpost to explain how it manages to exist in its shear gigantic size and there is no logic to how it seems comfortable floating in this abstract atmosphere.  There is no reasoning at ALL in the fact of its very existence.

…and yet, there it is.

Suddenly, everything changes.  You get the sense that the couple is no longer looking at the magnificent land before them, nor are they weeping at the dangerous experience behind them.  You get the sense that they stand there, by each other’s side, simply lost in the great, unexpected beauty before them.

…lost in its exquisite beauty that should not be here, but simply is.

It simply is.

The rose holds many symbolic meanings.  To Dali, I am told, it often symbolized the beauty of a woman, or romantic love.   That love was often a representation of the love he had for his wife Gala.  Through the ages the rose has stood for other nobel attributes such as loyalty, or trust.  It has stood for universal order and the natural beauty of the physical and spiritual world.   In the middle ages it was a symbol of God and of Jesus, and for the blood of the martyrs, and the wounds of a Savior that has chosen to show His love by taking our sins upon Himself…

There can be no greater love.

So what is Dali asking us to meditate upon as we look upon this rose?  He doesn’t say.  Art critics say one thing.  Dali might have meant another.  However, that’s the great thing about times of meditation, as well as art.  We must ask what is most worthy of our thoughts and most heavy in our heart.  We must see into it what is being pressed upon our spirit.

I, for one, see myself standing in this wasteland beside my beautiful bride…

Jeff Manion wrote a book called the “Land Between” in which he tells about the journey the Israelites took between being a slave in the futile land of Egypt and their eventual settling in the promised land of milk and honey.  In-between was a vast wastelands called the Sinai desert.  It was their “land between”.

This “Land Between” could have easily been a short few weeks journey.  Instead, it took them over two years to get from fertile land A to fertile land B.  Even then, after refusing to trust God, it took an ADDITIONAL 40 years to finally get to the place of promise.  And the lessons learned in this desolate land was not soon forgotten.

…because none of them were easy.

I read a quote from the quintessential Will Rogers this week that said,

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

As a proverbial electric fence pee-er, that kinda hurts! (as I imagine that it must for the non-proverbial ones).  You see, it’s because I too am in a “Land Between”.

This is not an uncommon experience.  All of us will find ourselves in such a land sooner or later.  It is often the result of a lost job, or an unrequited love, or a loved one that grows ill or passes away.  It’s the land that such a life alteration leads us into.

It’s a desolate place

A wasteland

A desert

Void of life, and joy

…and often hope

However, it can be something else also.

A land of faith

A land of discipline

A land of trust

A land of promise

Not a “Promised Land”, mind you., but a place that leads to it.

There are great truths that we can cling to in the Land Between.  Often, these are truths we must learn, but would never voluntarily put ourselves in situations where we can truly learn them in a way that transforms our hearts.  Things like….

Faith in God’s promises that often take longer than we think it should.

It is always harder than we plan.

It is always different from what we expect

So, is the “land between” a place of nightmares and the apex of all that we fear and dread?  It doesn’t have to be. For me, I’m surprised to find the opposite is true.   Actually, I find the “land between” a place of rugged, yet outstanding beauty!  In fact, in many ways, I’ve grown to love this place.  Why? Because…

I’ve never had such truer friendships.

I’ve never known the love of my extended family as so evident.

I’ve never been closer to my kids.

I’ve never loved my wife as much as I do now.

I’ve never trusted God or been as close to Him as I am now.

I look around the Land Between and realize that this is what I’ve been praying for for many years.  It’s not a “Monkey Paw” answer, but a true miracle of grace.  It’s a true blessing.

It’s a virtual landscape that I don’t regret having to travel through.  Not that I would have come here voluntarily, you understand.  There are many things we can learn from places we do not travel to voluntarily.  And I can say this one thing in full confidence…

I will honestly miss it when it’s time to leave.

You see, I told you that when I look into that painting, I see myself.  I see that the “land between” is not designed to last forever.  There is a Promised Land to settle into, you understand.  And here we stand soon to come upon a choice of paths before us and every one of them is a blessing from God.  The dawn is breaking with the promise of a wonderful, new day full of new mercies.  The harvest is plentiful.  The river is flowing.  The land is fertile. The countryside is beautiful.

Yet, I’m a little distracted right now.

Right now, I must confess I’m a little lost in meditation looking at this wondrous, unexplainable symbol of love, and grace and loyalty that God has hung above us.

…it shouldn’t be there

…it makes no sense

…And yet there it is!

Sure, I want to take my wife’s hand and run into the land of life and promise before us; this Karmal Gal Chayah.  It doesn’t even matter to me what path we take.   All the paths look wonderful. I look forward to that journey.

However, not just yet.  Soon enough.

Right now, I just want to look up into that infinity of grace and beauty and stare lost in meditation to its outstanding wonder.

And think

And pray

Lost in His divine beauty.