Whoever blesses themselves in the Earth,
shall bless themselves in the God of Truth.
Isaiah 65:16
My niece asked me to make a prayer flag for her church congregation in Kentucky. A curious mixture of Buddhism and Christianity, I was intrigued and created the flag in the photo.
I have been studying the life of Edward Hicks, a 19th century Quaker minister and artist. He created a series of 39 paintings based on a passage in the book of Isaiah, The Peaceable Kingdom. In reading further into Isaiah I came across the passage that I used on the prayer flag. It speaks to me of Earthcare.
I recently saw the movie The Life of Pi. It is a powerful story about the nature of man and the nature of nature. I saw the lifeboat as a metaphor for the Earth. Neither we nor the animals will survive if we don’t learn to live together in harmony on this planet.
The Book of Isaiah 11: 6 & 7 reads;
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Edward Hicks used these passages as metaphor for resolving religious differences in the Quakers of his day. To me these passages are a prophecy for a future world. I can’t see the nature of the animal world changing. However, I don’t see why the nature of man can’t change. Can’t we as a species see that the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of animals and plants is not in our, or the worlds, best interests?
Can Earthcare become a testimony that we can hand down to our children?
Roger Vincent Jasaitis 
Your flag looks wonderful! I also saw Life of Pi recently and would not have thought to interpret it the way you did..but it makes a lot of sense..
Cindy, because the “reporter” in the film interprets the story a certain way doesn’t mean we can’t make it our own using our own experience as a guide. I hope to hear other peoples take on this. 🙂
Wow lots to chew on here.
So I was intrigued by your reference to Hicks and his paintings and needed a look. I love the view of his world. I have been asked what color my sky is – which I retort– why pick one color when there is a rainbow.
Earthcare must be a message passed down to our children OR at some point we won’t exist. We’ve made such messes in our world but I do see glimpses of progress and lots of hope. I see a generation that I am helping to raise that teaches our children to recycle, upcycle, respect animals and their environment. It’s slow. There is much to learn.
As far as the Life of Pi – call me a dreamer but I truly only believed one story and that was the animal story. Maybe that’s my rainbow sky rearing its head again. Roger, I really enjoy the lifeboat metaphor and I further it by saying that the harmony between Pi and Richard took time and understanding. It’s slow.
Thank you for your work on the prayer flag – it means a lot to me. gina
PS I must say that I still have trouble with Richard Parker walking away with no glance back.
Thanks, Gina. I think that Richard Parker walking away was affirmation of his “animal nature”. Not easy for us humans to accept.
For me, the lion and the lamb are the Rich and the Poor: there is a lot in Isaiah about the rich exploiting the poor, and so understood the lion can lie with the lamb within the religious community now, rather than after some Last Trump. Though, also, we have to live with nature, and accommodate it.