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This landscape is full of incongruities— confrontations with the unexpected may be delightful, like sunshine in a snowstorm; bizarre like a bass voice in a petite six year old girl; inconsistent like a sensitive, peace-loving boy in a family of hunter-warriors; dissonant like an unexpected flat in a sweet melody; or strange and unsettling like this painting.
It’s obvious incongruities include the discordance of the irreconcilable planes of perspective, the oddity of the green sky and swirl, the absurdity of a tree that might or might not be growing in the water; the sense of emotional incompatibility between the snow tipped evergreen and the deciduous tree; and the strangely unexpected way all the primary colors—red, yellow, blue and green work together. Generally they are discordant or cancel one another out.
We understand what we see and assign meaning to the world from our training and experience. For some, this painting might suggest an unsettled, disordered state of mind or an unresolved science fiction fantasy. But others may see an adventurous quest into a strange new place, a landscape full opportunities to explore and dangers to skirt. To me, these incongruities form the discordant whole of an unsettled place of decision or a moment of transition upon a difficult journey. Fortunately,
God is not a God of confusion but of peace. 1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV
When His order is disturbed, when He turns things upside down and allows unsettling changes, His goal is to shake away what can be shaken, to open us to fresh possibilities, and to move us into peaceful steadying orbits around His loving well-ordered plans.
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:18 NLT
