Psalm 1:6
patterns of growth
For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish. (Psalm 1:6 DR)
One of the surest ways to discover someone’s priorities is to examine their habits. The sheer repetition of an act can give you insight into what matters, whether through hard work and suffering in the case of virtue, or through sloth and neglect in the case of vice.
As embodied creatures who come to know things through discursive reasoning, so experientially we demonstrate what we know and value through what we do regularly. We can make an effort towards a certain thing at a certain time and that’s all well and good, but it’s in the things we end up doing as a matter of course that reveals what we really desire. After all, we call such habits second nature for a reason, since they become such a part of us as to be like they were always there.
Jesus gets at this profoundly we he says:
Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. (Matthew 6:19-21 DR)
To lay up treasures—regardless of the destination—requires a consistent effort, and that effort reveals what one deems most important. And the reality is that we are every day laying up treasures, whether through the increase of virtue or the increase of vice.
In this verse the Psalmist concludes this mediation on the distinction between the righteous and the wicked by zooming out to God’s perspective; the Lord knoweth the way of the just. St. Hilary of Poitiers remarks:
Thus he shows that those are known of God who know the things of God: they are to come to be known when they know, that is, when they attain to the honour of being known through the merit of their known godliness, in order that the knowledge may be seen to be a growth on the part of him who is known, and not a growth on the part of one who knows not. (St. Hilary of Poitiers, Homily on Psalm 1, 24.)
He goes on to give the example of Abraham, who, after preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac, was told “Now I know that you fear the Lord your God, and for My sake you have not spared your dearly loved son.”
God certainly was not ignorant of the faith of Abraham, which He had already reckoned to him for righteousness when he believed about the birth of Isaac: but now because he had given a signal instance of his fear in offering his son, he is at last known, approved, rendered worthy of being not unknown. It is in this way then that God both knows and knows not — Adam the sinner is not known, and Abraham the faithful is known, is worthy, that is, of being known by God Who surely knows all things. (ibid.)
In this way we become known to God through our actions, and through those patterns of growth in virtues that become habitual.
I wanted to play off of this idea of growth and the habit of virtues in this animation, and I happened upon a great image somewhere that had a repeating pattern of leaves overlapping themselves which I thought would be a great launching point.
I found various images of leaves and cut them out in Photoshop and then brought them into After Effects. I ended up (probably unnecessarily) precomping each individual leaf, although I guess I was thinking I wanted to hedge my bets in case I wanted to replace any later down the line.
At any rate I simply moved the anchor point to the lower extremity of each leaf and applied a simple rotation, setting it to continuously loop with the loopOut() expressions.
In the main composition I then composited the leaves together, trying for both randomness and compositional balance. I was originally just going to use green leaves, but I thought the orange and yellow leaves would make for a nice aesthetic, and sometimes that’s the only reason!
I then applied a time remap to each composition, adding the loopOut() expression to each instance, which then allowed me to offset the leaves to get some variation in the animation.
Enjoy.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.
(Psalm 1:6 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: