Connecting to God: Creating with Prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:11, 16-18 (NRSV)

¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Praying means you sit in a quiet room, with your head bowed, and your hands folded, right?  That is how you are supposed to talk with God, listen to God, get closer to God – at least that is what I learned growing up.

I was a very – let’s say – mischievous child, full of energy, always going, always getting into things, and so when I was taught that in order to have a relationship with God I would need to be quiet and still for long periods of time – it just didn’t work for me.

As I got older I realized that if God is so great and vast, and God created each of us as wonderful, complex, unique, and quirky people, then why would God only connect with us humans through one avenue, through only a quiet, stilled, not-moving avenue? Once I realized that I could connect to God in different ways beyond a hands-folded prayer, I felt set free, I felt free to be able to connect to God through different avenues, by doing different things.

One of the main things that I do for self-care is to create things, to take something from an idea and bring it into reality.  This action with my hands centers me, it allows me to focus on something that I can see and tangibly feel coming into being.  I am able to take my energy and channel it into something that can flow through me out into the world.  And so, during Lent, I like to take something that I love doing, that gives me joy, and refocus it, put a new lens on it, and use it to get closer to God.

So, during this season of Lent, I am creating a paper mosaic. I have mapped out a scene that I will use as my focus for this season and, then I determined how to cut paper to piece together and create this scene. As I have cut these pieces of paper I have put the different ministry sites of the Virginia Synod on the back of each piece, and so as I place a piece into the mosaic I am taking the time to learn more about and pray for each of you, for each of your contexts, for each one of your relationships with God.  It has been my honor to  pray without ceasing this Lent for you, to do what I can to build each one of us up.

We are each unique and special, different and also alike, and so are our relationships with God; and yet, when we come together in our vast differences, when we align our pieces together, we can create something bigger and better and more amazing than we could have ever done on our own.  And for that I give thanks to God.