A copy of the painting above hangs on the wall of my guest room. On the nightstand is a book of poetry with the same picture on the cover. A few years ago, I came across this collection of poems by Mary Oliver called Blue Horses, and I was so struck by one particular line in the title poem, “Franz Marc’s Blue Horses,” that I bought both a copy of the book and a copy of the painting to share with guests.
The poem was inspired by Franz Marc painting pictured above called Tower of Blue Horses. As a German painter and printmaker, Marc was a key figure in the development of German Expressionism until he was drafted into the German Army at the beginning of World War I. He was killed just two years later in the Battle of Verdun at the age of 36.
It’s important to know this background in order to better understand Oliver’s poem. To read the entire poem, click Franz Marc’s Blue Horses
The particular line of the poem that stuck with me is:
Maybe the desire to make something beautiful
is the piece of God that is inside each of us.
But in revisiting this poem and painting in the midst of watching the terror of war play out in Ukraine, I couldn’t help but notice the color scheme of the painting that resembles the Ukrainian flag, the splash of a rainbow in the corner that I somehow never noticed before, and the longing of the poet that Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually.
As you use your growing Rainbow prayer ring this week, let this be our prayer. We pray for the world to grow kinder, for violence in all its forms to give way to peace. As we continue on our Lenten journey that ends in the violence of Good Friday, we give thanks that violence doesn’t have the last word, that resurrection and new life are possible.
It’s in that hope and promise that we respond to God’s invitation to make something beautiful—to sing or serve, paint or calculate, to write or teach, dance or pray. Beloved of God, make something beautiful this week!
In Love,
Pastor Annette