Holy Fire / The Fire and the Rose are One

36 x 48 inches
oil and wax on canvas
$7700

The God of Heaven and Earth who lives in unapproachable light sent Jesus, His Son, so we can enter his presence. He has redeemed a kingdom, a people from all nations, tribes, and tongues and empowers and cleanses them with his Word, the holy fire from heaven. (“Is not my word like fire,” says the LORD. And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29).
He is a consuming fire of judgment for his enemies, “a fire goes before him and burns up his enemies…” Psalm 97, but the blood of Jesus Christ protects his people.  In grace, he descended to earth at the Incarnation and “we beheld His glory.”

The title references T.S. Eliot’s poem, “Little Gidding”
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.