From the Bible turns out not to boring series!

Re-reading the book of Revelation today! One of my favorites! Requires your mind and heart and imagination to leap between the lines into this great cosmic but practical drama, which ends the Book with a great vision! We’ve been reading lots of fairy tales, but this might be the truest and most peculiar tale ever.

And John liked birds, angels, thrones, creatures with many eyes, and imaged Jesus in more dimensions and manners than any other book. A white robed, bronze footed Son of Man (from Daniel), a rain-bowed enthroned King, a Lamb with seven horns and more…if you traced just that image alone through the whole book, you’d have a great collage, which rattles all “Sunday school art” of Jesus, off the walls! A diademic, multi-faceted portrait!

John liked eagles too! (Which makes sense, as that is his symbol!) Loving re-reading Revelation! Filled with scrolls opening and horses flying off the page; locust with human faces and scorpion tails and hair, angels, thrones with glass seas, and eagles which talk! My kinda book, and requires you to use more than logic to enter. You gotta show up to read this one!

Imagination and spirit required, to read this last book in The Book! Must be a favorite with artists! As it’s symbol forward, or the symbolic is in the foreground. I suppose people have had trouble with it, if they just approach it with reason alone, or only look for time maps (imagination works a bit in and out of time!) but those people probably didn’t read fairy tales as kids!”

Like this quote: “I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, ‘Woe, woe, woe…’ it said! The writer in a type of trance, looked and heard, and the eagle talking, predicting the coming woes! Great moment in the drama! And, of course, the eagle’s warning still applies!

John saw stuff! Great book if you get bored, and if you like really true fairy tales! It’s framed as a revelation of Jesus as well! So you know it’s going to be interesting!

My wife and i have been reading “Wrinkle in Time” out loud at night to keep the muscles of our imaginations in shape. This one’s a workout!

The writer of Revelation also gives a blessing to those who read it out loud! Makes sense. When you hear it read, you can see it better!

This book requires a fully engaged imagination to know what’s happening between the lines! I like art that requires more than logic. When i enter a building, there is the engineering, but there is also how light falls and fills each room-ambiance is hard to measure. This book requires reason and imagination to interpret! And has a unique tone. And i love tone, as a way in! Someone defined tone as, “An authors orientation towards the words!” That works for me! I always read for tone, and for what it meant to those who read or heard it then.
It’s one of the most cinematic books in the Book! Re-enjoying today! Read well friends! If you think the Bible is boring, read that book with an open mind and imagination! Wow. Love art that forces you to engage creatively in order to know the “from” it’s talking “about”! All language is a portal, as they say, but this one is a keyhole in the Sky!

Or as one theologian put it: “A true symbol, participates in the Reality to which it points!” That holds true with this fine art–the bible’s epilogue! Both bookends of the bible are pretty cosmic! Fun swimming in the ending this week, regardless! Why is this not cinema yet? They tried pretty well with “Noah” I thought–another great meditation! Why not Revelation! It’s got everything!

You don’t have to be religious to enter this one! This book is weird, interesting, scary in a good way at times, and filled with hidden pools of wonder to dive into and fish from! If you don’t like scuba diving or swimming or fairy tales of any sort, then the waters may be hard to fish. But if you like art, you’ll like fishing this huge pond! It’s fathomless. A nice ending on The Great Book!

When interpreting, as Rashi, the great Medieval jewish Rabbi said, fish the surface first (plain meaning, he called it), then pick a spot and let your sinker sink to find the hidden meanings just underneath. With this book, the bottom of the lake is on the surface, so you can see, to me, more clearly, what your fishing for! And this body of water, is definitely worth fishing!