From God’s fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. -John 1:16
“God chose to enter into human history in complete weakness. That divine choice forms the center of the Christian faith. In Jesus of Nazareth, the powerless God appeared among us to unmask the illusion of power, to disarm the prince of darkness who rules the world, and to bring the divided human race to a new unity. It is through total and unmitigated powerlessness that God shows us divine mercy.
Where is God? God is where we are weak, vulnerable, small, and dependent. … How can we come to know God when our focus is elsewhere, on success, influence, and power? … Often we do not know that the Christ child is within us.” —Henri Nouwen
Welcome to Day 31 of the Wonders of Worship (WOW) series. Today we ponder Communion.
“The goodness of God fills all the gaps of the universe, without discrimination or preference. God is the gratuity of absolutely everything. … Grace is what God does to keep alive—forever—all things that God has created in love.” -Richard Rohr
hungry gaps, sad gaps
burned out, stretched thin, pressed down gaps
~ Grace for ev’ry gap ~
Ways to Engage:
- Practice Visio Divina (receive, reflect, respond, rest) with the painting.
- Download the B&W image. Color it on your own or with a friend. Let it inspire further contemplation/conversation.
- You do you. Trust your intuition and engage in the way your heart desires.
Tree of Life painting update:
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 