“You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.”
If you could paint an image of peace, what would you paint?
Does it look like a river waterfalling into a beautiful creek?
A warmly lit home during winter or any house built on a rock?
Maybe a tree planted beside water, sending its roots into streams
just like the tree mentioned in Jeremiah 17:7-8.
Maybe it looks like Edward Hopper’s The Automat (1927).
Since its initial exhibit on Valentine’s Day 1927 at the opening of Edward Hopper's second solo show, The Automat has gathered the eyes of millions, inciting various, even sometimes contradictory, interpretations. The oil on canvas painting displays a solitary woman sitting at a table in a vacant automat as she gracefully holds the handle of a cup, seemingly to take a sip. A simple picture, indeed, but her facial expression, the background, and the setting accentuated with the absence of company fertilizes the painting for diverse interpretations.
Automat’s were self-serve fast-food restaurants popular during the Mid-20th Century. In such an isolated setting, the unnamed lady’s facial expression is lifeless as she looks down at her cup facing an empty chair as an optical illusion of lights stretch into the endless darkness of a night-blackened window behind her. Many have approached the painting as a representation of the growing urban alienation occurring in the 20th Century. During the Early to Mid 20th Century there were growing concerns of a destructive disconnect between members of society due to the atomization of individuals in an ever modernizing world.
To others, the automat, the lady’s body language, the background and the absence of people tells a different story. Although alienation appears to be a fundamental aspect of the painting, to some, the automat speaks of self-reliance in the face of isolation as opposed to loneliness. The empty chair, her blank expressions, and the seemingly endless darkness which shadows her can be interpreted as a representation of contentment within or despite isolation as an active choice.
My Undergraduate poetry Professor was the one to introduce Hopper’s masterpiece to me a couple of years ago and I was instantly drawn to it as though it reflected a version of me I wanted to achieve. As my phone’s lock screen image, I have spent much time contemplating my own interpretation of the painting. When I think of how peace is visualized in the Bible, I think of Jeremiah 17:7-8 which says,
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
To me, peace is the stillness of faith in God’s love, trusting that His presence is enough. I think of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41, rebuking His disciples’ unbelief saying, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” I think of how God tries to calm the storm in Moses in Exodus 3 upon the Burning Bush encounter and his heavy assignment. Moses asked God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And God’s assurance was, “Certainly I will be with you…”
When I take a long look at the lonesome lady The Automat displays, I don’t see a woman broken by loneliness or a lady empowered by it. With hungry eyes, I see Jeremiah 17:7-8; the picture of someone who, despite the darkness behind them and the absence around, chooses to trust that God’s presence is enough. I see Isaiah 26:3-4,
“You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”
But tell me, what do you see?