Mosaic

"Transformation"

Designed by Kris A. Shenk

Created for Advent 2011, Belmont Mennonite Church

This beautiful masterpiece is now hanging in my home. I can't believe it.

When Kris started working on this piece during the early part of Advent I mentioned to her that I was really taken with the concept and that it was pulling me in, making sense to me, and ministering to me in a very deep way (read: in a way no other art piece ever had).  I told Kris that first week she was working on it--before it was done, before it was even beautiful--that if she didn't have a home for it when it was done that I wanted to potentially give it a home in my house. Interestingly I had a spot that would fit it perfectly that had just been sitting open for 4 years. I think it was waiting for this piece, but that's not why it spoke to me so much.

It had been a rough couple of months. My friend Heidi had been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, a young child in our church was found to have meduloblastoma (brain cancer), and another woman in our congregation decided to stop treatment for cancer. And there were other difficult situations as well.  Life seemed so difficult for so many that I cared about, and seeing God in the midst of all the saddness was a challenge at times, imagining how God could possibly transform the massive pile of junk that was these situations...well...

Kris writes,

"Our focus for Advent 2011 was noticing God in our ordinary lives and finding ourselves transformed by God. We recognized that God came into this world through Jesus in an unexpected, yet very ordinary sort of way. In doing so, Jesus became the way to our own transformation."

As a visual illustration of transformation, Kris envisioned a mosaic made with ordinary objects donated by the congregation. She created a design and invited us all to bring in "stuff" from our lives to fill the spaces.  She planned to break, dismantle, and paint the items so she told us not to bring anything too precious. The mosaic then took shape section by section throughout Advent and was finished by Epiphany. Each week she would work on the piece on the floor of the sanctuary and I would see her in there creating, and each Sunday the mosaic would be up front again--still unfinished but moving toward completion, gradually taking shape.

Kris also writes about this process, "As I worked on the mosaic, sifting through all the random 'stuff' and transforming it to fit the piece, I realized the mosaic is a lot like Belmont. We come together as a church family, very ordinary people and broken in our own ways, and God transforms us into something better than any of us could be by ourselves. My prayer is that we, the people of Belmont, will continue to look for God's presence in our everyday lives and be transformed as we live and work and worship together."

So to make a long story a bit shorter, after the church decided that it would not be keeping the mosaic to hang there, I was told that the mosaic was coming to my house. If the church had decided to keep it there, I would have been SO fine with that. In many ways that is where it belongs. But for a variety of reasons they decided to go a different direction. Instead they have a lovely stretched canvas photograph of the piece hanging in the foyer with a description of Kris' process and thoughts beside it.

Well when I got the word, it was scary how excited I was. To have such a beautiful piece of art is exciting in itself, but to have a piece of art made by someone I know, respect, like, and care about that reminds me of God's presence in my everyday life and the everyday lives of those I love and care for in the Belmont family is so precious to me that I struggle to describe it. This piece of art literally (and figuratively for me) holds the "stuff" of the Belmont congregation. When I look at it I see the pieces that make up this pain or that struggle or this broken area or that challenge for those in the congregation that I work with. That is precious. It reminds me of how God can work in the midst of even the junkiest piece of life that we can experience. That is precious. It reminds me that God often speaks to us, comes to us, touches us in very ordinary ways. That is precious. It reminds me that transformation is possible. That is precious. It is a thing of beauty made out of the cast-offs of our closets, drawers, and lives. That is a precious image and reminder, too. And, when it all comes together, it isn't "perfect" in the sense of being without blemishes or breaks, and that's okay because neither are we. But it is beautiful--oh so beautiful--because the pieces came together rather than staying apart. 

Thank you, Kris for sharing your time and your gifts and for letting the Holy Spirit work in and through you to minister to all of us in such a significant way. And thank you for letting me give your masterpiece a home. It is my honor and joy.

The kids love the mosaic too. They loved watching it get installed and for the first few mornings it was here they would wake up and say, "Oh my! We haven't gone to look at the mosaic yet! Let's go!"

We literally stand there for 20-30 minutes at a time and just look at it, pointing out various items and showing them to one another.

Right after it was installed the kids wanted to be like Kris and make mosaics so they did with their little Melissa and Doug magnetic board and shape toy.