Bible Text: Psalm 46:1 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Behind almost every tragedy is a story, sometimes known and sometimes robed in obscurity and mystery. The questions that often come to mind when I hear of someone who missed the way or turned his back on God and walked away in disappointment and despair are simple: What happened? What went wrong? Why could the person not see beyond the despair to a God who loves us in spite of our failure and knows our heartache and sorrow?

One of those enigmas is a Dutchman known as Vincent van Gogh whose magnificent paintings hang in a museum that bears his name in Amsterdam. In 1972, Ken Wilkie, a Scottish journalist, was commissioned to write a story about Vincent Van Gogh to coincide with the opening of the museum, but the quest to find out about this gifted but disturbed individual lasted for more than thirty years. In my book on heroes known as Profiles of Faith I have a selection on Vincent where I tell about his serving as a missionary to coal miners and during that time something happened, something that seemed to cause his despair. What was it? We’re still uncertain, but Wilkie’s investigation helps add some light to a dark life.

He discovered that as a young man Vincent van Gogh had worked and preached in the great city of London. With the help of a London postman, he eventually found the house where he had lived—87 Hackford Road, Brixton. He also discovered something new and significant—perhaps something that gives insight to his eventual struggle. Vincent, at the age of 20, had fallen in love with his landlady’s daughter; however, his affection for her wasn’t returned. Rejected, he turned to his Bible and found refuge in his faith. Making contact with the granddaughter of that woman, Wilkie discovered an old trunk in the attic of her home, and inside that trunk was a drawing which Vincent had done of the very home where he had roomed.

Following the rejection of the young woman, Vincent went home to work with coal miners on the Belgian border, and it was there that he despaired and seemed to give up on God. But he never gave up on the beauty that God made in our world, and it was that gift he gave to the world until the dark day of despair when he took his own life.

Ken Wilkie’s story is published in his book, The Van Gogh File, but the real story may never completely be known. Obviously, there are missing facts and links that have been lost. Did he really give up on God? Or did he find within the solitude of his heart a refuge that was very personal, very private? Who knows? A.W. Tozer used to say that “art is beauty organized.” If so, Van Gogh never escaped that beauty because he gave the world paintings that are not only beautiful but reflect ourselves at various seasons of life.

His personal life never seemed very happy, which is true of many today. Yet from the dissonance of his life there still came a strange, if not sometimes slightly out of focus beauty that is haunting and captivating. Behind every suicide is a tragedy that says, “God, you aren’t big enough, powerful enough, or wise enough to help me through this so I give up on you, on myself, and the future.” That’s a sad, sad postscript to a life that could have been richer and fuller. Long ago the writer of Scripture wrote, “Trust in him at all times… pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8). Had Vincent Van Gogh done that, I wonder how different his painting might have been.

Resource reading: Psalm 62