A Little Bit of Light

OK, I’m not an art critic. I do, however, have fairly strong emotional responses to visual art and especially music. My favorite musician, Phil Keaggy, gives his take on Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, Starry Night, in the song, A Little Bit of Light…another one of my five-star songs. Phil’s got more fives in my collection than any other artist. Click on the title if you want to listen along in another window. Use the best audio you can…big difference… My take is after the lyrics.

A Little Bit of Light

I lie here staring at the starry night
Vincent Van Gogh you really got it right
Your brush strokes paint the darkness in your life
Behind every brush stroke I find
A little bit of light

 The sound and the fury kept me up all night
Count no count – you got me all uptight
The struggle for the soul is a terrible fight
Behind every word I find
A little bit of light

It's a beautiful thing to see through the eye
Of pain and heartache laid into the night
You run from the darkness in this life
But if you turn around you'll find
A little bit of light

The blackest sea would tell a tale
Of journeys the chosen few have prevailed
The failing dream could reach the highest height
And love comes tumbling down in a little bit of light
A little bit of light

 Don't forget the sunflowers or the lilies fair
The spotted horses and that old black bear
Laughter turns the tears we often cry
And joy comes crashing in
In a little bit of light

It's a beautiful thing to see through the eyes
Of pain and heartache laid into the night
Don’t run from the darkness in this life
Cause if you turn around you'll find
A little bit of light

Lyrics by Keith Moore, Music by Phil Keaggy, c 1998 Bridge Building Music and Word Music

Many nice moments in the song. In some ways “a little bit of light” is understatement when you look at the Van Gogh. The sky is zoetic, animated, rollicking. Even the homes and the countryside seem alive with a nocturnal glow.

Interesting to me that the church is dark. I could read that either positive or negative. Positive…the “church” itself is just a building but the hand of God and the interaction of the people are where the real life is. So the faith comes alive in the real world. Negative…true life and light are lost in the institution of the church and must be found elsewhere. I’ll take the negative possibility as a warning, and the positive as a vision of the good that can be.

Turns out Van Gogh and I have something in common: we’re both failed preachers. Ah, you never really fail if you pour your heart out honestly and helpfully, but neither of us appear to have made much of a living at it.

So, back to Phil, “pain and heartache laid into the night” but then, running from the darkness, stopping, turning around to find “a little bit of light.” Also turns out Van Gogh painted this scene from the window of a monastic asylum at which he stayed for psychiatric treatment in Saint-Remy, France. Wow! So the darkness is internal, but he sees the light. In that sense, maybe it IS just a little bit of light since it’s viewed from this towering catacomb.

This seems very real to me tonight, this slice of life, this tension between darkness and light. My first reaction was the contrast between heaven and nothingness…depressing enough, an emptiness like that. But the swirling of colors and the twisted forms leave the option of a more sinister black spirituality. That fits with what I understand of mental illness, how intensely spiritual it can feel.

I don’t see Starry Night as demented or deviant, but more in the realm of experience that we can all relate too. Out of the anguish of failure comes unexpected love. Out of a season of torment comes a gush of joy. We want straight-line ascent and success. We want a resume proudly transitioning from one accomplishment to another even greater. The broader human experience, though, seems to involve the twists and tension.

But what we take away and remember is the light: the dancing, beaming stars. Everything else appears to be canvas and accent. No matter how dark, there is the light. That light for me continues to be my Creator. As much as I want to be there for everyone I know in their dark times, I need the light that I’ve only found with a Jesus center. I don’t need 24-7 obliteration of any hint of darkness around me, because that’s completely unredemptive. Maybe, earth-side, what we get is mostly a starry night and a little bit of light.

Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."