By Lynne Baab—
I fell in love with Australian aboriginal art the first time I saw it as a young adult. I love visual patterns, and aboriginal art is full of them. A highlight of our first trip to Australia in 2001 was the art museums and art galleries where I got to see a lot of examples. I bought a book about aboriginal art and learned that many pieces are actually maps, representing the land forms, human settlements, and animals of specific places.
In 2011, my husband Dave and I began a new habit which we have continued. Several mornings a week we pray silently together for 20 minutes. We do it in the late morning when I am ready for a break from working in my home office. In the first few years of that practice, I often picked up a book of art prints and prayed using the prints. Last week, I wrote about doing that with paintings of biblical scenes.
One morning during our silent prayer time, I picked up my book on aboriginal art. I thumbed through it, marveling at the shapes and colors, thanking God for the creativity of aboriginal artists. My eye landed on a 1987 painting called Emu Dreaming by Darby Jampijinpa Ross. You’ll see the painting at the top of this blog post. For many months, Emu Dreaming stimulated my prayers in unexpected ways.
I know that my interpretation of the painting bears no resemblance to the intent of the artist. I find myself hoping that my great love for the painting would please Darby Jampijinpa Ross anyway.
Emu Dreaming – Darby Jampijinpa Ross
You’ll notice a circular center with eight wavy lines coming out of it. Seven of the eight lines end in a spiral. In New Zealand Maori art, that spiral is a symbol of new life, modeled on fern fronds in the spring. In my symbolic interpretation of the painting, the circular center of the painting is God. The eight paths are various things we do in our lives. If we want the freshness of new life, we have to say connected to the center.
However, one line moves from the center to the upper right of the painting without ending in a spiral. This helps me accept that sometimes even when we are connected to the center, our actions don’t bear good fruit that’s visible to us.
The three black circles that are detached from the center circle represent to me the good things that God can spin off of our actions, blessings and good fruit that originate in our God-centered actions but take on a life of their own apart from us.
Between the wavy lines that are connected to the center, we can see eight sets of straight black lines with what looks like arrows on either side of the straight lines. The arrows are pointing away from the center. To me, those arrows represent the deep truth that when we get disconnected from the center, so many forces within us and outside of us want to move us further and further from the center.
Emu Dreaming has called me, over and over, to stay connected to the center. My center is God in Christ, experienced though the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. The painting has helped me pray about the connectednesss of components of my life. Are various aspects of my life connected to the center, or are they actually like those thick black lines that want to draw me away from God? The painting has helped me evaluate and pray about habits, Christian ministry, and the relationships that shape and sustain me.
The painting has called me to confession. It has helped me renew, over and over again, my commitment to stay connected to the center so that I might experience new life in the various components of my life. It has helped me accept that sometimes – not often but sometimes – I engage in actions that result from my connection with God, but good fruit is not visible.
Thank you, creative God, for Darby Jampijinpa Ross and other aboriginal artists in Australia who delight me with the patterns they have painted.
________________________
This post, Creative prayer: Art as symbol and metaphor, is reposted with permission from Lynne Baab’s personal blog, lynnebaab.com. It is part of a series on creative prayer. Here are the other posts in the series.
Creative prayer with colors
The psalms and music
Walking and memorizing psalms
Creative prayer nurtures stopping
Creative prayer as remembering truth
Trees
Apples and wings
Learning from mindfulness meditation
Returning prayer
Relinquishing and welcoming
Prayer cards
Pressing pause
Creative prayer with Jeremiah
Submitting and entreating
Creative prayer: Seasons
Creative prayer without codependency
Creative prayer in a foreign language
Creative prayer while walking
Creative prayer using the imagination
Joy spot sightings
Creative prayer in a hospitable spirit
Creative prayer using our hands
Prompts for prayer
More prayer prompts
Creative prayer for creation care
Creative prayer: Art as symbol and metaphor
Creative prayer
by Christine Sine
October and November are my gratitude season and I wanted to give you a heads up so that you have a chance to get ready and hopefully join me in celebrating two months of gratitude.
It all began with a week of gratitude straddling American Thanksgiving that grew into a month between Canadian and American Thanksgiving. Now it is a whole season of two months of looking back, taking stock and giving thanks – to God, to those around me and to God’s good earth.
This year I plan to be a little more intentional than usual and invite you to join me. Drawing from the exercise at the end of the chapter on gratitude in The Gift of Wonder I am planning a protracted gratitude scavenger hunt, focusing on a new area of my life, and hunting for new items that I am grateful for each week. I think it this a great preparation for the end of the year and our celebration of Christmas. Will you join me and celebrate this important season together?
Here is what I invite you to do.
What Will You Need?
Get yourself a gratitude journal. I like an 8 x 11 1/2 sketch book like this Wirebound, Pentalic Sketch Book, or if you want to do something a little more special, permanent, and decorative you might like to try this Vintage Hardcover Three-Ring Binder .
Get a stack of post – it notes or small cards to label what you are grateful for.
Gather some decorative pens, pencils or crayons. I love paint pens which I think will be perfect for the vintage hardcover binder but colored markers will also work and are cheaper. Be aware that they might bleed through sketch pad pages though. The paint pens seem expensive up front but I use them for painting rocks, leaves, and wood so they are lots of fun to have around and seem to last for years.
Gather some magazines and photos that will help you make a collage of your weekly gratitudes.
A glue stick. If you like to do craft projects or have a kid who does you probably already have this around the house. Otherwise get the cheapest one you can find as you will only need a little or if you belong to a buy nothing group see if someone has one they no longer need.
What Will You Do?
Read through the chapter on cultivating gratitude in The Gift of Wonder. I have just re-read this in preparation for my own season of gratitude and I hope you don’t mind me tooting my horn a little but I really do think it is an excellent start to our gratitude season.
Set aside time once a week for your gratitude reflection. This is the scavenger hunt part. Over the next few weeks we will work through the different parts of your life hunting for and in some cases uncovering the things you are grateful for. Quickly write each item on a post it note.
Write in your journal. In large letters at the top of a fresh page write Ten things I am grateful for in my ….. . (prompts to follow) Make your list writing each item in a different color and follow it wit a sentence that describes what your life would be like without that item. You might like to break this up through the week and do 2 items for each day of the week.
Set aside another block of time for your creative exercise. You might like to create a collage, write a prayer, create a wreath or write a song.
Sunday is my gratitude day. I usually block off half an hour or more to think about what I am grateful for, but for the next couple of months I plan to spend more time on both the gratitude gathering exercise and the recording exercise. I am not sure how this will work with my busy travel schedule over this time period but I am sure that I can make something work.
Weekly Prompts.
Some of the prompts are fairly generic and can be used every week so choose from these and then apply the specific prompts below. Or if other ideas come to mind use those instead (and share them with us for future gratitude seasons.)
- Name someone that makes your life better.
- Name something you are particularly proud of.
- What makes you laugh?
- What are you grateful for that you would like to share with someone else?
- What is something unique that you are grateful for?
- Find something that makes you feel safe.
- Find something that makes a beautiful sound.
- What is something unusual you are grateful for.
- Name one beautiful thing you are grateful for.
- What recent lesson are you grateful for?
Week 1 – Gratitude for your life.
- Name an experience from your life you are particularly proud of.
- What or who has made you want to laugh this week?
- What is one talent you are grateful for?
- What is one thing about your body you are grateful for?
Week 2 – Gratitude for your family.
- Name your favourite childhood memory.
- Name a special attribute of a family member you are grateful for.
- One thing you recently learnt about a family member that you are grateful for.
- One way God has blessed your family that you are grateful for.
Week 3 – Gratitude for your friends
- Name one friend who makes you laugh.
- One thing you have learned from friends that makes you feel special.
- One way your friends have helped you grow
- Name the friends who have stuck with you through good times and bad.
Week 4 – Gratitude for your home.
- Describe something that smells amazing.
- Think of something you used today that you tend to take for granted that you are grateful for.
- One thing that represents your culture that you are grateful for.
- One thing with words on it that you are grateful for,
Week 5 – Gratitude for your workplace.
- Name one person who makes you smile.
- One aspect of your work you are particularly grateful for
- Name one lesson you learned this week that you are grateful for.
- Name one characteristic of your workplace you are grateful for.
Week 6 – Gratitude for your community.
- Name one of your neighbors you are grateful for.
- Describe one aspect of your community you are grateful for.
- What is your favourite community site that you are grateful for
- What is one thing about your community that makes you feel strong.
Week 7 – Gratitude for your place of worship.
- What is one thing about your place of worship that you are grateful for?
- What is one thing about your faith community that encourages you?
- Name one place in your place of worship that makes you feel close to God?
- Name one thing in your place of worship that shows a vibrant color you love.
Week 8 – Gratitude for nature
- What is one of your favourite beautiful places?
- What is one particularly good taste for you.
- What about the current season are you grateful for?
- What place in nature of gives you rest?
Once you have written your lists take time to reflect on what you have written. Allow the Holy Spirit to reach deep into your soul and bring a response – Decorate your list. Create a collage from appropriate magazine images and photos. Write a prayer or a song. Paint a picture. Whatever rises up within you DO IT.
P.S. You might also like to check out Ten Tips for Expressing Gratitude
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In Honor of International Day of Peace, a poem by Ana Lisa De Jong —
We were meant to grow up
climbing rungs to heaven.
We were meant to grow out
expansive as yeast rising.
We were meant to grow inwards,
increasing in love and wisdom.
We were meant to grow out beyond
our old ways of living.
Shedding skins as
clothes grown long too tight.
We are meant to learn grace
as something not heavy,
for it always being a gift renewed
and re-given.
We are meant to stop
condemnation, judgement, anything small.
Cease from all that makes us smaller
than what we are now.
For we are growing up,
and giving up,
the old receding
like the sun behind the hills.
And the love in us expanding
out beyond ourselves,
so that we might not recognise
who once we were.
And so it should be,
love in us ever expanding
until all we see
is love in all.
by Christine Sine
From the bedrock of being comes action. These are the words that came to me during my daily time of contemplation a couple of days ago.
The last couple of weeks have provided rich times of contemplation and replenishment for me as I focused on the need to be rather than the dire to do. . I feel as though my soul has been renewed as I have read Henri Nouwen, made apple cider, listened to my friend Mark Pierson, drunk my own cups of tea and taken long walks with our dog Goldie.
Now however it is time to move out of my chair and get involved. This replenishment, this state of being provides the foundation, the bedrock from which action must spring and there is a stirring within me as I realize my soul is getting ready for action.
But what does my soul long to do? What pulls at my heart calling me to action?
Climate strike, climate change, climate disaster. These are the things that eat at my soul and say “do something”. I cannot watch the young people crying out for changes to our destructive use of the earth’s resources or follow the path of disastrous weather events like Hurricane Dorian and tropical storm Imelda without knowing that I need to respond.
Do something my soul is crying. Let the seeds planted in your soul blossom and produce fruit. Responding to the climate crisis is one of the main contexts in which we need to follow Jesus today. This paraphrase of a sentence from an article I read this week says it all. We cannot claim to serious followers of Jesus unless we take seriously what is happening to our planet and to the future of our young people/
We Can Always Do Something More.
I am not sure who said these words this week but they keep revolving in my mind and I know they are for me. The small community we call the Mustard Seed House has always worked to live sustainably and lightly on the earth but I know there is far more that we could and should be doing. This is a crisis, a crisis that shows we have not be good stewards to the earth that God asks us to take responsibility for. We might feel we are already engaged in these issues but we can always do something more – advocates can become practitioners and vise versa. Those engaged at home can also engage at work and at church and in their communities. There is always something more we can do without exhausting ourselves and suffering from burnout.
So what can we do? Here are my suggestions of ways that all of us can engage.
Read and Listen
I have read some great articles this week on how to respond. I have tried to make these my focus rather than the bad news articles that tell me constantly how dire the situation is. Many of us are aware of that and we don’t need to hear it again. Then Ways My Family Tries to Love The Planet is a great place to start, though I must confess it had me jumping up and down wanting to say – Read The Gift of Wonder because a lot of what it suggests are ideas that I talk about in my book – cultivating awe and wonder, curiosity, delight and thanksgiving are all emphasized. Above all they bring us from a place of hopelessness and fear to one of joy and engagement.
Other good voices to listen to are the native people who have been concerned about creation care and our irresponsible use of the planet for many years. Randy Woodley is a good person to start with. If you want a theological approach try Shalom and the Community of Creation
If you want something lighter – maybe a story to share wit h your kids The Harmony Tree is a great place to start.
What are you reading that girds your feet for action in the current climate crisis?
Ground Yourself in Good News Theology
I think we easily forget that Jesus brings us good news – not just for us but for our neighbors and for our planet. God’s end game is not some fiery apocalypse but a restored creation and a renewed people. In Christ all will be made new. The beautiful imagery of the Holy city at the end of time in Revelation 22 is of a garden city with the river of life flowing through it lined by trees that produce fruit in every month of the year and whose soothing leaves provide healing for the nations.
What Bible verses give you hope and renewal as you face the impact of the climate crisis in your neighbourhood and around the world?
Believe Change is Possible
I think that many of us do nothing because we are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem and we cannot see how our little contribution can make a difference. Yet it can and we don’t need to be a Greta Thunberg or a Wendell Berry for that to happen. Every time we plant a seed, decide to walk rather than drive, or cut back on our consumption of fossil fuel we are saying we care and we can make a difference.
What small things do you you could do to make a difference in your life, neighbourhood or country?
Be Inspired by the Light Bringers
Greta Thunberg has been a light bringer for millions this week and I am reminded of Isaiah 11:6 a little child will lead them. And I do feel that in this time of crisis it will be the children or at least the young people that lead us and hopefully we will be inspired by their rallying call.
There are others too that give me hope and guidance. Young Evangelicals for Climate Action is one group of young Christians that give me hope. The Evangelical Environmental Network the umbrella group for Young Evangelicals is another. Plant With Purpose is yet another. And the list goes on of Christians already involved in addressing, in their own small way the challenge of climate change.
As I listened to Geta’s speech my eyes were drawn to my copy of Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees. She is another light bringer for me. I love this book, not just for its beautiful illustrations and inspiring story but also because it convinces me that ordinary people can make a difference and far more of a difference than any of us expect.
Who are the guiding lights that help you believe change is possible and we can all make a difference?
All The Spirit To Speak To you About What You Should Do.
It is not just the human light bringers that I feel are challenging me and so many around the world to move into action at this critical time. The Holy Spirit too calls to me to do something and a good place to start is by looking around at what is already happening and saying Who is God prompting me to join? You might like to start by checking out the organizations above. Or perhaps your church is already involved in environmental initiatives. Earth Ministry has a wonderful Green Congregations Initiative that provides some wonderful suggestions on things that your church can do and offers a partnership arrangement to help this happen. Our own church Saint Andrews Episcopal installed solar panels several years ago and was awarded by the Bishop of Olympia for their efforts. I am so proud of what they have done because of the prompting of the Spirit.
In what ways could you help your congregation listen to the voice of the Spirit about the climate crisis and ways they could respond?
Confront the Problem Head On
OK my friends say but you are an Enneagram 8. Of course you want to confront this head on. Of course you believe that everyone should. And it is true as a contemplative activist and an Enneagram 8, I do want to get out there and lead the charge, but if that is not you find someone who can lead the charge and follow them. Find someone who can inspire you to change and who can give you the fuel and the action steps to do so.
In what ways do you need to confront the challenge of climate change head on and who can you enlist or follow to walk with you?
Make a Commitment and Stick to It
So here is where the rubber meets the road. It is one thing to march with thousands of others who are inspired in the moment by young advocates. It is another to commit to change and stick to it. And I am guilty of this. We have talked for years of installing solar power and large rain barrels but neither have happened. And my resolve to walk more to the supermarket rather than drive has also tended to be overlooked. This I think is where we need a community that holds us responsible. (Maybe some of you will be that community for me?)
Who will keep you accountable to the changes you resolve to make?
How Would God Ask You To Respond?
Our creator will probably not ask you to do the same things that I am considering but I do ask you to prayerfully consider what is being asked of you. As a good steward and a committed follower of Jesus how will you respond to rallying call? How will you investing the future of our young people and of our planet by taking the climate crisis seriously?
Prayerfully read Then Ways My Family Tries to Love The Planet Is there a way that God is asking you to respond?
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By Lilly Lewin
Reflecting on last week’s Gospel Reading Luke 15: 1-10
Sometimes it’s hard to see that we are Lost
And other times, it is hard to believe that we are actually Found…
That we are actually searched for and sought after by the Good Shepherd.
Why does Jesus care about me?
Why does Jesus want me in his flock when I’ve got so many problems, so many doubts, so many fears…when I fail so many times to live up to who I want to be and who I think he has created me to be.
Thankfully that’s not the economy of Jesus.
God doesn’t judge the way I do.
God/Jesus is Gracious and loving and forgives.
God searches for the lost sheep and the lost coin.
And God/Jesus doesn’t just search for the coin,
Doesn’t just leave the others to look for the Lost Sheep,
God/Jesus celebrates the Lost One when it is found.
Too often I cannot even fathom this!
Too often I cannot comprehend this amazing love, care and compassion.
As someone who has followed Jesus a very long time, I get stuck on this passage as one for
People who don’t know Jesus yet. They are the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coins of the world, not me.
Yet truly, I am the Lost Sheep
Really, I am the Lost Coin in need of finding, in need of being carried home, in need of being celebrated by my Creator.
What does being celebrated really look like?
What will it take for me to really receive that celebration?
To receive being Found?
I know from experience that sheep are very stubborn.
We had a sheep named Sally who would stomp her foot when she didn’t like something or when she felt threatened. Stubborn…
Just like I am.
So what if the lost sheep doesn’t want to go with the Shepherd?
What if the sheep thinks they know more than the Shepherd?
I think the Shepherd sits down on a rock or on a grassy hill and lets that silly sheep just be alone for awhile.
He watches her and waits for her to notice his care and his compassion and his patience.
A wise teacher named Rujon Morrison once said, “ God has manners, God doesn’t barge in, God knocks, and waits for us to open the door.” The point is that we have the handle on the door. We have the ability to open up and let God in. You and I have the ability to let God/Jesus find us and carry us home.
And not just find us, but be celebrated as one of the chosen ones, the valued ones, the cherished ones!
I want to live like this!
I want to live in the Foundness of Jesus.
As one valued and cherished. Not just as a stubborn sheep.
Let’s receive this gift!
ACTION:
After reading Luke 15: 1-10 Take some time to journal through these questions:
- It’s Foolish to leave the 99 and search for one lost sheep, yet the Good Shepherd leaves the Safe sheep to find the One who has lost it’s way. How have you felt lost lately? What things keep you feeling lost? Talk to Jesus about this.
- How have you felt found? Or Have you felt found? Do you feel celebrated by God? Would you like to be carried home and thrown a party? What would it feel like to be celebrated by Jesus? What would it take to believe that Jesus/God loves you enough to find you and celebrate you?
Buy some lamb’s wool or a toy sheep to hold in your hand to remind you that Jesus is seeking you and wants to find you. We found lamb’s wool in the pharmacy but it’s on amazon too! Use this wool or sheep as a prayer tool to remind you to pray for others who are feeling lost rather than found and need to know the love and honor of Jesus.
Find something that makes you feel celebrated and use it as a reminder that God/Jesus wants you to feel valued and celebrated and totally loved. I currently have helium balloons leftover from a party that I am using to remind me that Jesus finds and celebrates me. What is your symbol? What makes you feel celebrated? Talk to Jesus about this.
The rest of Luke 15 is the story of the Prodigal Son. (you can read it if you’d like ) Consider this quote :
“I have been meditating on the story of the prodigal son. It is a story about returning. I realize the importance of returning over and over again. My life drifts away from God. I have to return. My heart moves away from my first love. I have to return. My mind wanders to strange images. I have to return. Returning is a lifelong struggle. . . . I am moved by the fact that the father didn’t require any higher motivation. His love was so total and unconditional that he simply welcomed his son home.” Henri Nouwen
How does it make you feel to know that you are Welcomed Home and you are being looked for like a coin or a lost sheep?
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
by Christine Sine
Yesterday’s post reminded me that I have not posted harvest prayers and litanies for a long time. This one I wrote several years ago (and there are links to more as well) is my favorite and I didn’t think I needed to write a new one, especially with the abundant harvest of apples I am still working to process.
Scarlet runner beans ready for the winter
It is harvest season here in the Pacific Northwest. The tomatoes are finally ripening, the beans have dried on the vine and the apples and pears are ready to be picked. As I walk out and see the miracle of what has come from tiny seeds my heart swells with gratitude at the wonder of how God provides. each year at this time I write reflections and prayers on the harvest season, perfect to think about on my awe and wonder walks.
A few years ago I wrote this reflection: The Harvest is Plentiful But the Labourers are Few;
The year before I posted this: Praying for an Abundant Harvest
And the year before wrote this litany: God of the Bountiful – A Harvest Prayer
And my first post on this theme in 2008: The Generosity of God – Fish and Loaves for all
There is something about this season that calls forth my gratitude and thanksgiving in ways that I realize I cannot deny. And it reinforces the generosity of God and God’s expectation that we will share from this bounty.
This morning as the fragrance of our apples continues to surround me I found myself revisiting this prayer which is one that I shared in To Garden with God (still the best selling of my books) :
God we thank you for a harvest of plenty,
Small seeds that multiply to feed many,
Trees that blossom and produce abundant fruit,
Tomatoes that ripen on the vine with sweet flavour.
God we thank you for abundance overflowing,
Enough for our own needs and an abundance to share,
Enough to feed the hungry and provide for the destitute,
Enough to reach out with generosity and care.
God we thank you for seeds you have planted in our hearts,
Seeds of righteousness yielding goodness and mercy,
Seeds of love yielding justice and peace,
Seeds of compassion yielding healing and renewal.
God we thank you for the bread of heaven,
Christ our saviour planted in our lives,
Christ our redeemer growing in our hearts,
Christ your Son making us one with you.
God we thank you for the gift of life,
Like water poured out on thirsty ground,
Spring and autumn rains that revive and bring life,
A river that flows from your heart and out into the world you love.
Amen
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