Inside the Spin-Mosaic Studio

If we think social distancing is rough, try being in an isolated quarantine leaning against the belly-lining of a big fish. That was Jonah.

Sure, it was hard to get a whale in a position to fit on my little 5" x 7" sketchbook page, but the twisting here...I picture him going along his merry way swimming in the waters and then hearing God's voice...

"What was that?", he says, "Did the God who created these waters just speak to me?".

We always think about Jonah in this story, but what about the whale? Can we give him a moment of glory? Did he not ask himself why God provided a meal and then commanded him to spit it up 3 days later (1:17, 2:10)? 

The book of Jonah is easier to read than it is to understand. Four chapters and about 5 minutes is all it takes.

At the start of the story, God's last (paraphrased) words to Jonah were, "Go to the city of Ninevah--tell them their time is up." Jonah didn't want to. He ran. Jonah was leaning on his "own understanding".

This card came in the mail last week from my Dad. He selected scripture verses, printed them, cut them out and sent them through snail-mail. I shuffle through them throughout the day. This morning, these two verses landed together, and I saw the word, "understanding" on both as if they were highlighted.

I grabbed a highlighter and actually highlighted them. There is something sequential here.

1) Proverbs 3:5, "Don't lean on your own understanding..."

2) Philippians 4:7, When we lean on God, "His peace transcends our understanding."

The word transcend makes my poet's heart thump. To transcend makes me think of water currents flowing in, through and around.

There is a key to peace hidden in the current. There are times we need to let go of our self-inflicted and self-entitled ownership of understanding. If our own understanding were personified; it does not walk along beside us on a leash. We are not it's owner. We do not lead it where we want it to go; nor does it lead us. 

I walk my dog down our country road or along the trails of our back woods often. Wren knows when we are getting close to home; she leans into the leash. The closer we get to home, the more her leaning becomes a struggle until the charisma of her self-assurance nearly chokes her.

Jonah leaned into his own understanding and nearly choked. He found himself on a boat traveling in the opposite direction of God's last words to him. The boat leaned hard into churning waves and stormy winds. Jonah was thrown overboard. And, then this happened...

"But, the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish 3 days and 3 nights." --1:17

Jonah could not lean on his own understanding in this predicament. The only thing Jonah had to lean on was the inner lining of a whale's belly. He was contained. Notice the current in the water where an artist's signature is traditionally written--

Finally, Jonah begins to lean into his faith. "And the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land." 

The big fish did not swim on God's leash like my dog; yet it knew it's Master's voice. God is the one who created the oceans and every living thing in it. 

When I sketch; I think like an artist because I am an artist. I pictured God-the-Master-Artist signing his name in the currents of the ocean after the 2nd day of creation, "El Roi". This is one of the many Hebrew names for God meaning, "the God who sees and provides."

If God signed his name across the ocean on Day 2 of the Genesis account, did he look ahead to the day he would provide for Jonah by sending a fish to swallow him in a nasty storm? I wonder if Jonah considered being contained in the belly of a fish a provision or a problem at the time?

"I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite..."

--Isaiah 57:14, 15

God's purposes transcend. God's understanding transcends. 

Only when Jonah had nothing else to lean on, did he lean on his faith and reach for His God. "From inside the fish; Jonah prayed." --2:1

Jonah had a lot more struggles before the story was over. This proves that he was fully human, just like us. We later find him sulking at the edge of the city, alone and waiting to see what God would do to Ninevah. This time, the waves and wind were not beating down on him; the sun was. God "provided" a vine to grow and shade his eyes. The next day, God "provided" again---a worm to chew and wither the vine. How is this problem a blessing?

God provided the big fish to swallow Jonah; and commanded the fish to spit him out. God provided the vine as a shade and provided the worm to wither it. The same word, provided, is used in Hebrew for both the solutions and the problems? It's a good thing we are called by scripture not to lean on our own understanding...

Only by leaning on God's understanding, can we hope to gain perspective needed to transpose provisions...to problems...to purpose...to perspective...to peace. God's peace picks up where our understanding leaves off. 

God's signature on the oceans he created, "El Roi" was placed in the top right corner of the artwork, turned at an angle where only He could read it clearly from the heavens. You and I can read it if we strain our necks and twist. Sometimes, only by twisting out of our comfort zones, can we gain the position needed to better read the Name of God in the currents of our present waters. Just like Jonah--just like this big fish squeezed onto my 5" sketchbook page. 

Faith is like the colors bringing to life a black and white work of art.

The big fish twists, "Did the God who created and signed his name on these waters just speak to me?"

God still speaks, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. --Isaiah 55:8-9