The Arts--A Prayer
Yesterday evening at Spring Fest (our congregation's spring celebration of music and art) I listened with amazement and pleasure to a high school chorus, a group from our congregation, and a drama troup from the local Jewish community center. I also walked through our gallery and enjoyed the art and fine crafts of so many of our people.
Thank you Lord, for the wonderful way you make human beings. You give us the capacity of expressing praise and wonder and hurt and redemption through music and poetry and the arts. Through the gifts of imagnination and the creative spirit that resides within us, you give us voice to transcend both earthly joy and pain.
Praise be to you, for through the arts participate in some humble way in Your own character as Creator. And through such arts we discover ways to live in the incongruities of human existence. Through music we find hope; through art we find beauty; through drama we give voice to our joy and sorrow.
We recognize O Lord, that you are not unaquainted with story; you have pulled us into the cosmic drama of redemption. And because you have given us a glimpse of the final scene and you have foreshadowed the outcome through our baptism we play out our parts with hope.
Thank you for the creative spirit of imagination that provides us with another place to connect to you.
Carson Reed
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Your post today is one reason why I enjoy reading what you write. Your prayer pointed me toward God today.
In Sarajevo 22 people were killed waiting in line for bread. Vedran Smailovic, dressed in a tuxedo, took his place in the street and for 22 days played his cello in spite of immenent danger. The sounds of Albinoni's adagio in G Minor filled the air among sounds of artillery and sniper fire. The war is over - the music lives on. Millions know this story and there is an unofficial shrine where he Vedran played. In Sarajevo Croats, Serbs, Muslims and Christians know his name and face. We don't need miracles - we just need you and I to take up our bow and play when there is nothting else to be done!