TRUTH: We spend so much of our lives a few steps ahead.
What’s for dinner? How will a conversation go? How will it turn out?
Sometimes we are trying to solve the future before we know what will happen. Sometimes we are replaying what has already happened, wishing we could change it.
And still, grace keeps inviting us back. Inviting us back into our bodies. Feeling the ground beneath our feet. An invitation to the life that is actually happening right now.
I’m going to invite you into a practice with me. Visio Divina means divine seeing. It is a contemplative practice of prayerfully spending time with an image and paying attention to what begins to stir within us.
There is no correct way to interpret the art. Simply give yourself permission to slow down, look closely, and remain open to God’s presence.
Arrive
Take a moment to settle wherever you are. Notice your breath. Inhale. Exhale. Notice where your body is supported by the chair, the floor, or the ground beneath you.
You do not need to be anywhere else. You are here, and God is here.
See & Wonder
You are invited to spend some time looking at the image. Let your eyes wander across the page without trying to decide what it means.
Where do your eyes naturally land? What do you notice about the colors, lines, and movement? What feels close? What feels far away? Stay with the image a little longer than you normally would. What do you notice now that you did not notice at first?
Image Insight:
This painting is inspired by a small overlook along the Natchez Trace just outside of Tupelo, MS. I had passed the sign before and wondered what was there, so on a random afternoon adventure with my ten-year-old niece, we stopped.
She looked around and said, “Wait. This is the overlook? What are we overlooking?”
It was a fair question. The “view” was just fields and trees and sky, but the longer I stood there, the more beautiful it became.
Often we have already written the story about what something will be like before we ever experience it. Sometimes we are so focused on where we are going that we do not stop at the overlook at all. Grace has a way of interrupting us. It’ is like a small nudge. An invitation to slow down and discover what is actually here.
Receive
Return your attention to the image.
Notice the rows stretching across the page. Notice the place where the trees melt into the sky. Notice the birds moving through the scene.
Here are some questions to reflect on as you continue to reflect on this image:
What would it feel like to follow the path without knowing exactly where it leads? Where do the edges of your life feel uncertain? What in your feels like it is still moving, unfolding, or becoming?
There are not right or wrong answers. It is simply an invitation to notice.
Perhaps grace is not offering you the whole map.
Perhaps grace is inviting you to be here.
Take another slow breath. Feel your body where it is. Let your shoulders sink down. God is present here. In this breath. In this body. In this unfinished life. In what you know and what you do not know yet.
What might it mean to trust that this moment is enough? Where might grace be inviting you to stay curious about? What possibility opens when you do not have to try and predict the future?
Stay here for another moment. There is nowhere else you need to be.
As you move back into your day, perhaps you can carry one simple prayer with you:
God of grace, keep me open to the life that is here. May you follow the path without needing to see all the way to the end. May you remain curious about what you have not yet discovered. May you feel the ground beneath your feet, the breath within your body, and the presence of God surrounding you. And may grace keep bringing you back home to the present.
Available Now: The Artful Awakening Deck
This piece of art is from something new I’ve been creating: The Artful Awakening Deck.
The deck grew out of my Doctor of Ministry project. It is rooted in the belief that art can become a doorway into prayer, reflection, honesty, imagination, and grace. It is a 54-card deck, and each card features original art along with invitations to pause, notice, listen, and respond.
You might use it for quiet time, journaling, spiritual direction, retreats, small groups, or the days when you want to pray but words are hard to find. The deck is coming soon, and I cannot wait to share more.