In her book, Race and the Cosmos, Dr. Barbara Holmes writes, “Dale Pond, a specialist in sympathetic vibratory physics, writes, ‘Genesis records God as having SAID Light into Being but perhaps it would be more accurate to say God SANG Light into Being as the prelude to our cosmic dance.’”
Welcome to Day 2 of the Wonders of Worship (WOW) series. Today we ponder the Prelude.
Finnis: Prelude I with Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Preludes II, III, IV and V are also available.)
Ways to Engage:
- Practice Visio Divina (receive, reflect, respond, rest) with the painting.
- Consider why a robin was chosen to represent the Prelude. Ponder another way to illustrate it. You are welcome to share your creative thoughts and ideas in the comments.
- Download the B&W image. Color it on your own or with a friend. Color in silence or while listening to the music linked above. Let it inspire further contemplation/conversation.
- You do you. Trust your intuition and engage in the way your heart desires.
To download the black and white image for personal use: on a computer, click and drag the image to your desktop; on a phone, press on the picture until it gives you the option to save it to your photos. The image is formatted to fit on an 8.5″x11″ piece of paper, but feel free to print it whatever size you’d like.
Background: I created a series of forty 5″x7″ watercolor paintings inspired by the elements of worship. It was work commissioned by a project with Nourishing Vocation with Children at St. Olaf College, a program funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.
As the paintings are shared, you may notice a pattern:
- Music = Songbird
- Prayer = Seed and/or Fruit
- Word = Leaf
- Order of Service = Element of Nature
- Season = Insect with a Flower
One final creative invitation for this project remains for me: to paint a Tree of Life holding all forty elements. I plan to share its progress here.
For this series, I am grateful to have used handmade paper from White Dragon Paper and watercolor paints from Natural Earth Paint.
vonda drees art 