Beloved Epiphany friends–

The beautiful mural that was commissioned for the side of our shed, right by the Door #2 entrance, is in progress.
 
When I left church Sunday afternoon – Sunday afternoon is a very quiet time in the building, and it’s a good time to get ahead on work to be done – I was surprised to see the artist, Natalia, and her family doing the preliminary steps of the mural, a depiction of the beauty of God’s creation, starting at the top!

When I arrived this morning, much more had been completed, so one could see the beginnings of the sky, the mountains and areas where flowing water, greenery and animals would be painted in. What a joy to see!
We tend to be people of words as we relate to God. Certainly the Scriptures, the words we say in our worship, our prayers, our conversations, all have the power to be sacred. But I know, too, that what we see with our eyes has a language all its own that can be sacred.

I’ve been taking some training on using the arts in coaching for leadership development on Thursday nights for the past couple of weeks, and whether it is music or poetry or art, the teachers show how arts – including the visual – can break down barriers to creativity and open hearts and holiness in ways that secular words cannot. I can’t count the times when someone has said to me, as one person did on Sunday, “when I walk in God’s creation, that feels like church/is sacred/brings me closer to God.” I know in my own walks on the nature trails around the church, I feel that as well, even though I deeply cherish our “official” worship times.
 
The mural, an expression of the Creation story in Genesis 1:31, is just one of those visual cues that point our eyes toward that which is holy and beautiful. 

In this time before the crazy busy-ness of Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas begin to overtake us, it might be a soul-refreshing thing to look around and see God’s world, given for our delight, and revel in it. Whether it’s a squirrel with cheeks stuffed with acorns, the deep red of a maple leaf alongside the yellow of an oak leaf, or the different cast of light as we move deeper into autumn, let your eyes and your soul feast on it all, and say a prayer of thanks for the gifts we have been given, particularly the gift of sight.
 
God is good. We can see it around us. When we are most vexed, look and see. God is there. And thank you, God, for being there for us.

Be blessed and be a blessing,

Mary+