“Rescue from the Old Song” ~ A Meditative Response

Amy Grimes writes her thoughts about her painting “Rescue From the Old Song”:

The old song was one of creaking limbs and cold torrents of air. It held the forest captive. The trees were bare, nothing bloomed, and all seemed dead as a snapped twig. A girl grew up in this sad, lonely place and the old song filled her heart. One day a bird flew into the forest – a simple brown bird – not much to look at. But as the bird sang, its song filled the forest like water fills an empty cup all the way to the brim, and it overflowed into the girl’s heart. And everything changed.

Imagine a forest of cold wind and dry, rustling leaves, embedded with a brooding darkness. In such a hollow place, void of hope, the pervasiveness of sorrow can so easily overwhelm our hearts. But even in the darkest of days, we know deep down that “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” [1] The light of the Word incarnate remains like an eternal flame, and no amount of wind will extinguish its glow, nor darkness prevail over it.

Because we are made in the image of God, we are also light bearers in this “captive forest” in which we live. You embody His light because “in him was life, and the life was the light of men.” [2] Bring your beautiful song, story, or smile to each day and overwhelm the shadows with His pervading luminance.

[1] John 1:5 ESV

[2] John 1:4 ESV

The featured image and painting, “Rescue From the Old Song,” is courtesy of Amy Grimes and used with her kind permission for Cultivating. It has been modified to fit the featured image size restrictions inherent to this website.

Annie Nardone

Annie Nardone is a lifelong bibliophile with a special devotion to the Inklings and medieval authors. She is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute and holds an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. Annie is the Director of Visual Artists for The Cultivating Project and columnist for Cultivating Magazine. She is founding board member, managing editor, and author for the apologetics quarterly, An Unexpected Journal. Her writing can also be found as travel blogger for Clarendon Press U.K., with published poems at Calla Press and Poetica.

She holds a MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University, and is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute. Annie writes for Cultivating, Literary Life, and Clarendon House Books, and is a managing editor and writer for An Unexpected Journal. Annie collaborated on three books in 2022, published by Square Halo Books and The Rabbit Room. She recently designed a curriculum detailing the intersection of theology, the arts, and history and is a Master Teacher for HSLDA. She resides in Florida with her Middle Earth/Narnia/Hogwarts-loving family, and an assemblage of sphynx cats and feline foundlings.

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