As I’m putting today’s post together, a pretty steady rain is falling, making our blue metal roof sing, and there are patches of sunlight out the window. Feels like I’ve stepped into that old Irish blessing.
2020
Still, Small Voice in budding branch,
may we see new mercies and love.
2019
“Through our tears we see the tears of God.” —Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son
“…But we remember love,
and how each act of cowardly violence
can bring it out,
multiply it for good.
How the wave of hate,
can yet be pushed back,
by a love which grows in increments
to flood the land.”
—Ana Lisa de Jong, an excerpt from “Sacrilege” written in the wake of the tragic loss of life in Ana Lisa’s homeland of New Zealand
2018
Lilly Khoury, a Christian Arab from Israel, tells a story from her childhood, “The fig tree, the lemon bush, and the pomegranate old tree surely remembered the year 1948 when the family was forced to abandon them. Not a single word was uttered yet silence declared a history of a whole nation. All eyes filled with tears.”
2016
2015
A little segment of a gracious blessing from Jan Richardson’s Beloved Lenten Retreat
2014
a page created during The Way, a small group experience offered through LEAD. I’m thinking about next year and maybe facilitating a group that would explore the material through art journaling. We would meet weekly, beginning Sept. 2014, via an online conferencing tool.
Lectio Journal – A spiritual journal is a record of God’s word to you. Does anything in the Ephesians 2:14-16 passage stand out to you? Make notes on what stirs you. Perhaps you’d enjoy adding color, shapes and images to your notes. Give yourself permission to be immersed in creating. Don’t worry about the outcome, just enjoy the creative conversation.
Back in January, I reflected on that passage while in Peru. This is a journal page created during my time with our brothers and sisters there. The global church has much to offer us as we ponder what it means to be “one body through the cross.”
2021… From my desk this morning to you:
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of God’s hand.
vonda drees art 