The silent cry - The silent scream

Dearest Daddy

Yesterday I was reminded of the famous painting by Edvard Munch - "The Scream" or "The Cry". A painting that the painter felt so intense about that he has painted different versions in different mediums of this one painting. A painting so well known that it has been used in various ways and for various reasons over the years - even "The Simpson's" has ripped it off. A simple Google search produces page after page of images of copies or replications or dramatizations of this one painting that is more than a 100 years old.

Why? 

Why does an old painting depicting pain, horror, crying, anguish still hold the attention of the world so many decades later?

What is it about this painting that speak to us even today in the 21st century?

Is it because so many people are walking around with a silent scream lodged in their throats and chests?

Is it because we live in a world of masks hiding our pain and showing the world only what we believe the world wants to see?

Is it because we are so busy trying to be super humans, and super Christians that we are too scared for the world to see our silent screams?

Is it because so many people wants to find a bridge, a lonely and quiet place and just scream and scream and scream to heaven?

How many of us are walking around with a silent scream, a cry to be seen and to be loved and to be held and to be heard?

How many of us are holding in the scream of pain from difficulties, abuse, not coping, loneliness, problems, worries, illness behind a smile?

How many of us are hiding a need for love and care behind the answer "I am well/ fine/ good and you?"

How many of us are holding in a silent scream from bitterness, jealously, hatred, pain, rejection, disappointment, bad self image, feeling lost, not understanding what is happening or not happening to us, behind a face of serenity and supposed strength? 

Daddy and Sweet Jesus

Only at your feet do we find a release for our silent scream. Only at your feet can we be totally honest and take of the masks and the face and show You the truth inside our hearts and minds.

You know when we just need to be held in silent love

You know when we need a kick in the backside to get us going out of our self-misery

You know when we need understanding and compassion

You know when we need a word of advise

You know when we need intervention and help

You know when we have reached the end of all our resources and cannot move forward anymore

You know when we are being killed by the silent scream

You know when we do not want a sermon, platitudes and nice advise, empty words

You know when we cannot face another sermon or speech about faith

You know when we want to scream hearing about the wonderful and perfect lives of other people, how you work in their lives and how they cannot stop talking about themselves in their holiness

You know when we feel like crawling out of our own skin

You know

You know

You know  

Dad, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit

Thank You for never judging and finding me too light, lacking, weak, not worthy

Thank You for not wanting to make me anything except that which You have created me to be

Thank You for knowing and still loving me

Thank You for never rejecting me

Thank You for understanding 

Thank You for grace and mercy - unending

Thank You for burning in me like a roaring fire

Thank You for hearing and answering my silent scream - so many times
Thank You for holding on even in the times of my silent screams

Thank You for the promises and blessings spoken over my life and that not one word from Your mouth will ever come back void and empty

Thank You

Psalm 35 (King James Version)

 ²¹Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.
 ²²This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.
 ²³Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.
 ²⁴Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.
 ²⁵Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.
 ²⁶Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.
 ²⁷Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
 ²⁸And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

Info on "The Scream" from Wikipedia
The Scream (Norwegian: Skrik; created in 1893–1910) is the title of expressionist paintings and prints in a series by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, showing an agonized figure against a blood red sky. The landscape in the background is the Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo (then Kristiania), Norway.
 
Edvard Munch created several versions of The Scream in various media. The Munch Museum holds one of two painted versions (1910, see gallery) and one pastel. The National Gallery of Norway holds the other painted version (1893, shown to right). A fourth version, in pastel, is owned by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen. Munch also created a lithograph of the image in 1895.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream