Comforted Together

There were several vivid images that came to my mind while reading the Book of Joel -- so many, that I had to narrow down the list of quotes I would mention in my post.  I enjoy reading literature that is descriptive, but leaves room for the imagination as well.  Here are the images that stood out to me the most, in chronilogical order:
"What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming
locust has eaten;
And what the swarming locust has left, the
creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left,
the stripping locust has eaten."

The image in my mind is of these four locusts each eating part of a leaf and putting it down for the next one to come, until the last one "strips" the very last part of the leaf from its stem.  The locusts are all green, the color of new grass.  The gnawing locust is the most disturbing, although it's not a particularly frightening or unsettling image as a whole.

"Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the fangs of a lioness."

I see two lion heads against a white background.  The first one, the male lion, I can't make out very clearly, but his head is turned to the side, facing right.  The lioness is much more detailed, and I can see her whiskers bunch together as her lips curl to reveal long fangs.  It's a gruesome snarl, but it's still not too disturbing. 


"Come, spend the night in sackcloth"

This is, perhaps, the darkest image I encountered in the text.  I envision several men wearing sackcloth, but it's a dark, grey-black color, contrary to the normal potato-sack-brown that I usually think of when I hear "sackcloth".  They are bent over, and one looks like he might be grabbing his stomach, as if something is paining him greatly.  It's night, and the background is very black.


Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad,
For the Lord has done great things.
Do not fear, beasts of the field,
For the pastures have turned green,
For the fig tree has borne fruit,
The fig tree and the vine have yielded in full.

This was one of my favorite images.  I believe I was influenced by the last class assignment (going outside to read to nature) when I re-read this passage today.  On Tuesday, I sat on the very edge of a lake, and all around me were patches of clover -- a green so bright I can't describe it.  The grass swayed a little bit in the wind, and the water seemed still and moving at the same time.  I thought of how the Bible says that all of creation groans together, "and suffers the pains of childbirth together..."  When I read to it about God's comfort, it was a feeling I haven't experienced before, and it's difficult to explain.  God made nature, and he made me, which means we are both part of creation, groaning together.  God tells us both not to fear -- both me and the little ducks in the water, looking right at me.  For a moment, I was soothed, and I like to think that in some figurative way, the rest of creation breathed a small sigh of relief.
   I didn't read this passage aloud on that day, but when I read it now, my mind is filled with those images - of creation being comforted.

"Let the weak say, 'I am a mighty man!'"

I absolutely love this verse.  I see an elderly man with a long beard, missing some teeth, raising a thin, feeble hand with a pointed finger and proclaiming, "I am a mighty man!"  He smiles that very real smile that exeplifies, not just happiness, but a supernatural strength and hope.