Babeldown, 48 by 24 by 1.5 inches, oil on canvas, gallery wrapped, completed October 2023.

In the process of creating a contemplative work of art, I usually learn something.  In the case of Babeldown, I learned that the tower of Babel story is a parable of the human condition.  In the story, God confuses the language of the people so they will stop building the tower "with its top in the sky".  The people are scattered throughout the earth--but they never stop dreaming of and trying to build the tower.  They never stop trying to reach heaven by their own effort and ingenuity.  This seems true personally, corporately, nationally, universally.  And during the times when we come closest to completing the tower, the powers and principalities of this world become the most visible, masquerading as an angel of light, becoming the prince of the power of the air.  It may have a satellite dish for a head, and be offering us the world and everything in it in the form of a cell phone, but the story is the same.  We have seen it play out before.

There is more.  This is a complicated work.  The picture will have to tell the rest.

Except for this:  "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."