While reading Psalm 23 in multiple translations today had a revelation about the nature of art. It carries you to the part of the spiritual realm it was written from! The symbol participates and opens us to the Reality to which is points!

Try to catch the repeated metaphors in each writer or artist: David, shepherding, battle, kingship, priestly—especially since He is the portent of Messiah, look at his metaphors. Psalm 23 is his shepherd one. You can sense, because David was so close to God, there is a transparency into the Kingdom realm in his writing! When someone has united with God deeply, like Merton, Rich Mullins and all the NT writers, you sense Christ through their voice. They are porous, like a filter through which to encounter Him. Even though they still have their own voices and concerns, what you sense is His Presence. It’s like the writings leave traces of their doorways.

When we write from our relationship with God, we create ladders for other’s into His Presence! People don’t have to agree with the words, but they can sense His Presence through them. That is the wonder of spiritual writings.

Art itself leaves us doors into spiritual rooms. It matters which room the artist is in, because that is the room you’ll be lead into. If they are in a room of intellectual curiosity, of healing, of worship, of teaching, of reflecting on their own wounds etc; be assured, if you are reading to encounter, you will encounter wherever their heart actually is or was on their journey. This is essential especially when reading overtly spiritual writers like Kempis or Merton. Merton was frank about how odd it is to write about spiritual things. He chose to have his spirituality overheard. That is not everyone calling, but it was his. He let us into his personal intimacy and explorations with God. In his youth (Seven Storey Mountain) we overhear him exploring his way towards—early stages of spirituality. Later we overhear him learning to rest or abide in God; then still later to explore how God meets other in different cultures. But throughout we are overhearing and entering the spiritual Reality he was encountering then.

This is good to remember for many reasons! For certain seasons, we need certain seeds. Where a writer guides us, may may not be what we need that particular season. It’s good to know what type of food our spirit needs each season.

But regardless, a true spiritual writer will guide us into the part of God they are exploring at their stage of development. This is the wonder—how words become ladders directly into what they are symbolizing! As Paul Tillich taught, “symbols participate in the Reality to which they are pointing!” That hasn’t changed.

Merton compared writing “about” spirituality, to an artist writing “about” art. Sort of redundant, and yet, some have that teacherly calling to do so. It’s like swimming, and at the same time writing about water! That’s a unique calling. But some did it well. Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, CS Lewis, and others take us into the part of God they are writing about! Their words participate in that to which they point us.

Art itself portals us into what the artist is exploring, whether just ideas, or essences, or the nature of Nature as some of Van Gogh’s did. We are thrust or invited to enter that area of Reality through the art. The vehicle matters, but it is not the “thing itself”. It is a means to encounter what it is touching! That’s what words or any symbolic form of communication is! This is very practical actually, as once we see and know the nature of language or symbolic communication, we know we are being guided or led somewhere, and we can choose if that is where The Spirit is leading us now in our current season.

Merton tells us, his is a spiritual memoir taken actively from an ongoing journey deeper into God. So we know, and can chose to join him or not. That type of overt honest is rarer than you would think. Some writers sort of trick us into following them. And you aren’t really sure where you are going until you find yourself in the wrong place! Henri Miller and Bukowski come to mind. Both great writers, but where they take us is dark, and mostly about their own wounds projected out onto Reality. Broken lenses, and broken guides I’d say. And where do they lead us, into a pornographic version and view of life. Bad fruit. So be careful which guides you pick, they may have great talent, but are not home yet, to themselves or God.

Be wise which guides you follow, for you will end up in the room they are writing from.

The ladder is not the Reality, but words provide a stairwell in the dark towards something. God Presence incarnates in their words if they are in Him! Then there are part of God which are opened into through a particular writer’s words, depending on where they are in their own journey. Nouwen for instance, “Clowning around in Rome” is exploring freedom from religion and creativity; so you will be led into that part of the Mystery. In other books, he is exploring belonging (Voice of Love etc), so you feel that pastoral care aspect of God. Particular seeds come in particular packages. Notice which seeds you need when, and take those! God does not leave us without shepherd, but good shepherd always lead us into the Great Shepherd!

Put simple, art is symbolic communication which works by the laws of symbols. Symbols participate in the reality which they are talking “about”. That’s why symbols are a higher part of communication. So watch where the symbol guides you. In Dekooning paintings for instance, the symbol leads you into an abused version of womanhood, as many artist did. Gaugiun also takes you into a sort of hedonistic view of females, you feel his own lust more than the woman he is painting. Understanding the nature of symbols is essential for interpretation. Symbols are a strata of how God made things, and how He expresses Himself. God is symbolic. He symbolizes Himself in Nature, in the Bible and in and through people. We also symbolize. It’s part of our humanness.

The nature of art language is unique, it takes us into direct contact with what the art is participating in. Art participates in that to which it points, for this reason, it’s important to know which direction it’s pointing! You will find yourself swimming in that particular water, if the art is real.

This is mystical, but you know how words are windows. So when I am reading MacDonald, or Nouwen, or Merton, i feel God’s Presence, and I feel them. When reading Nouwen for instance, i feel his joyful personality, his humour, his depth insight into the heart, his vulnerability, but what I really feel is God’s Presence, filtering through His words. I don’t always agree with the words themselves, but I feel God in them. Or through them! That’s the true magic of writing. We set up little portals which remain after we are gone, little ladders made of words, which those living can climb and meet God, or at least the part of God we met. Isn’t that what spiritual writing is? Making ladders from our words and lives, so others can climb more easily into His Presence.

Finding other’s ladders helps us, as we grow in union ourselves, we start making ladders with our words or lives for others! We become co-heirs, or more living words.

I still love encountering Merton through reading his words. It’s because they are in God some how, and God I know, so I recoginize those in Him, and if their words are also in Him, then that is a doorway for me. And they served us by leaving their spiritual words with us! By now, they have written more books and moved on to other topics, but even these they left on earth, are still seeds, or doors, or portals into God’s Presence. That is powerful. The NT being the highest example of this.