December Prayers | In him all things hold together

“All Things.” Oil, gold & silver leaf on panel. 48 x 36 inches.

GREETINGS, FRIENDS!

I recently was commissioned by my church, All Souls, to commemorate Christ the King Sunday. This painting above, entitled, “All Things," is, I think, a fitting way to mark both the end and beginning of our church year. I hope you can sit with it for a minute in a brief “visio divina” to see what the Christ child might be saying to you this day.

Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) is hosting a juried virtual Advent exhibit entitled, Yes!. The above work as well as 26 others are available for your Advent meditations.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

Colossians 1:15-17

The Love of Morning

It is hard sometimes to drag ourselves

back to the love of morning

after we’ve lain in the dark crying out

O God, save us from the horror. . . .

God has saved the world one more day

even with its leaden burden of human evil;

we wake to birdsong.

And if sunlight’s gossamer lifts in its net

the weight of all that is solid,

our hearts, too, are lifted,

swung like laughing infants;

but on gray mornings,

all incident—our own hunger,

the dear tasks of continuance,

the footsteps before us in the earth’s

belovéd dust, leading the way—all,

is hard to love again

for we resent a summons

that disregards our sloth, and this

calls us, calls us.

-Denise Levertov