Seeing God in One Another

Seeing God in One another - praise through creating art and prayer.

Unconventional Prayers of the People & Pastoral Prayer  

I was convicted this week that we are all humans, created with love by God. In the image of God.  

I had the privilege of providing the message at my Grandmother’s funeral earlier this year. My Grandma was someone who looked for and saw saints and angels everywhere. If she narrowly missed hitting a deer on the highway, she would point out that an angel was with us, keeping us safe. In the Hebrew Bible, often, angels, messengers of God, and the presence of God have the same Hebrew words. The messengers of God, doing God’s work, were the presence of God; there’s little distinction. In looking for and seeing angels everywhere, my grandmother was looking for and seeing the presence of God.  

My grandma’s witness to the world through this action was generosity. She looked for God everywhere and found God in the people around her. This morning, we are going to follow the example of my grandma, but we are going to take a few minutes to see the humanity in each other, and in prayerful reflection for the very human needs each of us has, we will seek God’s presence and revelation.  

Greeting One Another  

Those of you who are able, I would like for you to get up, and go sit right beside someone that you haven’t spoken to yet this morning. Shake their hand, greet them, and welcome them into worship with you and into your physical space.  

Go ahead! Go and sit beside someone you haven’t spoken to yet this morning. If it is harder for you to relocate, one of those of us who it is easier to uproot will come to you; just stay where you are.  

Does anyone need a partner still? Let’s each look around and make sure all have a place.  

We are going to hand out a ½ sheet of paper and a pen/pencil. We are going to make contour drawings of each other. So I invite you to look into your partner’s face and then draw them. Contour drawings are done without picking up your pencil. We will set a timer for two minutes, for those two minutes, you should look at the beloved child of God in front of you and put their essence on your paper.  

Don’t worry if you are a terrible artist, we will trust the Spirit in our endeavor to compensate for any lacking skills we have here. The point of this is to see the beauty and care of our Creator in each other. Ok, timer is set, go!  

Would anyone like to share Joys and Concerns?  

Stay where you are at for just a couple more minutes, does anyone have joys or concerns they would like to share with our entire community?  

Today, we are going to pray for each other. Please share any additional requests or joys you have with your sibling in Christ beside you. Lets take a moment to pray aloud for each other. If you feel comfortable, hold their hands, thank God for them and add any personal ways they’ve blessed you or this church community. If you feel led, write them a one-line prayer on the drawing you made. Let us pray for each other personally this morning. I will offer a pastoral prayer at the end of this time. Let us pray for each other now.  

(set a timer for 2 minutes)  

Pastoral Prayer:  

Creator God, You formed each of us in our mother’s wombs. You have seen us as your children. Let us see each other as your ordained creation and as siblings. Let us be a family of peace who embody your love within our individual selves and collectively in our community. May your love in us, be our witness to the world. Amen. 

You are welcome to sit beside your prayer partner or you may return to your original seats.  

We offer praise in the form of art and connection today. We’ve embodied the message of our God, a God who sees us, as named by the prophet Hagar. We remember the works of a God who sees us and loves us. Loves us so much as to come embodied in the same humanity we inhabit. We strive to see God in each other out of this example. Today, this is our offering of praise, to live for a few minutes in this very God-like way.