The Edge of the Abyss

One of the paintings in the Munch exhibition yesterday by which I was mesmerised was called 'Girls on the Bridge'. 

 

 

There are, in total, 12 different versions of this painting - it seems it was a theme and an idea to which he returned several times, each time capturing a slightly different aspect or angle of the subject.

 

Critics have formed different opinions and ideas about the painting and its meaning.  In particular, they have been mesmerised by the dark depths of the river swirling below the bridge and what it might represent.

 

Munch himself revealed some of the symbolism of the imagery in his paintings - especially the darkness - in the following quote:

"My whole life has been spent walking by the side of a bottomless chasm, jumping from stone to stone. Sometimes I try to leave my narrow path and join the swirling mainstream of life, but I always find myself drawn inexorably back towards the chasm's edge, and there I shall walk until the day I finally fall into the abyss."

Sometimes in life we can feel dangerously close to the edge of the abyss.  We can fear falling into the bottomless chasm and being unable to get out again.  We all go through periods where we feel 'down' and experience bouts of depression - some longer than others - and we just can't seem to lift ourselves out of our own pits.  We try to join the "swirling mainstream of life" but, like Munch, we feel lost in the chasm.  We question ourselves and our lives and our God.  And none of the answers we find seem to satisfy us.

 

When we are in these dark times, it is easy to feel that we won't ever find our way to the surface again.

 

We need someone else to rescue us - someone to reach down into the depths and pull us to the surface.

 

And this is exactly what God says He will do:

 

         "But me he caught—reached all the way

          from sky to sea; he pulled me out

          Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,

          the void in which I was drowning.

          They hit me when I was down,

          but God stuck by me.

          He stood me up on a wide-open field;

          I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!"

 

          [Psalm 18:16-18 MSG]

 

Whilst we may find ourselves at the edge of the chasm, we will never be lost there forever: as soon as we cry out to God, He will always reach down and rescue us and bring us to the surface.