Liturgical Art

I just finished putting up the liturgical art for the season at Fairfax Community Church, where I'm doing one of my internship. The pastor, Rev. Katharine Harts, wanted some kind of structure that we could hang things off of, sort of like a wooden grid, but not ugly like a grid. As I was perusing the items at Goodwill for inspiration, I had the idea that a large branch would be perfect! But, it had to be the right size and have a pleasing shape. Where to find such a branch?

The next time I ran into Katharine, I told her about my idea, and she told me that a moving van had just hit one of the trees in the parking lot the day before and broken off one of the branches! She took me outside to go look at it, and they were perfect! There was a nice big one that we could hang in the middle of the chancel, and two slightly smaller ones we could hang off to the sides. We figured out when the moving van must have hit the tree, and we realized that it was right when the idea had come to me to use branches! It's one of those weird coincidences that I have a hard time believing is just a coincidence. Sometimes, God has a strange sense of humor.

Anyway, I finished hanging everything up today, and I think it turned out very nice! The pictures don't do that great of a job conveying how the artwork occupies the space, so if you want to see what it really looks like, stop by for a Sunday morning worship service sometime this month!

I'm Looking

I'm looking for you,

But you're hiding.

It would be one thing if you knew you were doing it,

But you don't,

Because you don't know that I'm looking.

You don't know that I'm looking,

Because I haven't told you,

Because when you were there,

I hadn't realized that I'd found you.

You were there,

And then you weren't.

But, for a moment,

You were there.

And, I wish I had known then,

That I was looking for you,

But I didn't,

Because I hadn't told myself,

That I was looking,

Because that would have been too scary.

Not that I'd know what to say if I found you.

"Hi," maybe,

Or, "So nice to see you again."

"Such nice weather we're having today."

Because, it's important that you don't know,

That I've been looking,

Because I'm afraid that is would change somehow.

It's the coward's way out,

It's why you don't know,

And why you may never,

Ever,

Know,

That I've been looking.