On Us God's Favor Rests
You meet, or not meet me
I am there, neither sad nor happy;
You miss, or not miss me
Affection is there, neither comes nor leaves;
You love, or not love me
Love is there, neither be increased nor decreased;
You follow, or not follow me
My hands are in yours, neither leave nor desert.
Come into my arms, or let me live in your heart.
Silence; Love; Still; Joy. The Father loves his children so much that he cannot force his love on them but allows them to find their own life, even bears the missing and worries. By this love, the only thing the Father can do is to stretch his arms waiting for his children to return, return to the place where they were called beloved. Rembrandt and several of his works were told both in History of Europe's Middle Ages and Art classes in my high school. I have never had such a fully understanding on this great artist and his works until I finished reading Mr. Nouwen's book The Return of The Prodigal Son. Rembrandt left a open space for audience to guess what happened after the moment which sleeps in the painting. No one could tell what the next scene would be. I can not either. But I am sure that everyone has a different version how the play continues and, everyone will find a character in this painting which reflecting him or herself during a certain period of time. The Prodigal Son is one of Rembrandt's last works and it is an other completely different painting style from his early works. To paint that work Rembrandt must have had too much sorrow and finally found his inner peace. Although the great Dutch painter's later years were marked by tragic and financial problems, he reached personal success at youth. It was at his 14 when he entered the University of Leiden. Rembrandt opened a studio when he was only 18 or 19 and began to accept students three year after that. He had become the most famous portrait painter in his late twenties. Many famous Dutch painter were from his studio. Rembrandt married Saskia when he was 28 and one year after they moved to Amsterdam settling down in a expensive house. He was confident and venerated. This great artist drew fantastic paintings while, he did not have any plan on his financing. His expenses often exceeded his high income which caused his financial hardship in his later years. According to Rembrandt's early self-portraits he lived a luxury and dissipation life which filled with feasting and revelry. Like the younger son, he gathered all he had and squandered them all. The death of his wife Saskia and his several children left him as a poor lonely old man. Though, Rembrandt's works in his later years showed that he had finally had find his inner peace. The author of the book The Return of The Prodigal Son Mr. Nouwen finds the thing which he wanted the most from the Rembrandt's painting, that is the place where he could forever feel safe. In the book, Mr. Nouwen writes three phases of experience as the younger son, the elder son, and the father and his first phase is the experience as the younger son. The author was deeply touched by Rembrandt's the Prodigal Son when the first time he saw the poster of it at his friend's door. When he saw this great work he was just back from a long lecturing trip in the U.S. He was both physically and mentally exhausted and dying for a safe place to rest his body and soul. He found so much in common between himself and the ragged younger son who had run out of energy. Mr. Nouwen heard so many voices other than the voice which calling him the Beloved that he was lead to leave the only place where he could hear the voice, and travelled to somewhere else desperately trying to find what he could no longer find at home. He tried to find his way back home by resigning his teaching position in Harvard University and returning to L'Arche; However Mr. Nouwen found that it was much more difficult than he had thought to become truly part of