The Cross in the Depths

I love this picture. It's Sieger Koder's depiction of the woman at the well from John 4 (though St Paul's Multimedia links it with Ps 139, interestingly).

It's the second face in the water that gives this post its title, and gives me hope, both for my own rocky road towards maturity, and for a broken world. As God deals with my own heart, my past, my present, including what John Goldingay calls "adult oddities", I keep meeting Christ in my depths, as I meet him working patiently away in many others too.

An expanded translation of Prov 20:5 (reflecting the imagery implied in the original text) might be:

The plans and purposes of the human heart are hard to fathom, like deep waters, but those with understanding bring them up to the surface, as one draws water from a well.

I am convinced, as a forgiven sinner (not in a beating myself up sense!) learning to live as one forgiven and loved, that the cleasing and restoring power of the Cross goes so much deeper than all of our depths, so we can even rejoice even as God's often painful work progresses in us.

Comments

[Caroline]

I love that idea of the human heart being hard to fathom... somehow it captures in a less damning way the twists and turns of our hearts

twists and turns that can be very harmful

but which are the twists and turns of failed and fractured folly rather than deepseated evil

and they are the twists and turns that Jesus straightened out at the cross

thanks for this post Richard, I've missed your meditations over the last week or more

[Mares]

Hello
I just discovered this artist and feel so privileged to see a new way of perceiving our human yet divine journey.
Thank you for a beautiful entry and I like your links to the scriptures.