Order includes:

• high-res image file formatted for print

• high-res image file formatted for web/projection

• A PDF of the Artist's statements & scripture reference for the visual

• A visio divina Bible Study Guide for you to use this image in a group study session that incorporates the ancient Benedictine spiritual practice of "divine seeing."

Credit Info:

When printing and sharing online, please always include the following credits:
Artist's name | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org

From the artist:

I like to think of this passage from Isaiah as “The Great Exchange,” as God’s dreams painting the world with promise: The oppressed receive good news, the brokenhearted are bound up, captives and prisoners are released and liberated. Mourners are not only comforted, but crowned with gladness. The faint-hearted are bolstered with praise. In the aftermath of exile, the prophet provides them with a rich vision of hope—of joy, even. After everything in their world has fallen apart, they are named the anointed ones, the restorers of the ruins. 

This year, many of us are the brokenhearted and the mourners. Many of us find ourselves in the ruins of lives disrupted by COVID-19, economic turmoil, political strife, and deeply-embedded racial inequities. As the Church, we have experienced a strange form of exile—displaced from our sacred spaces, rituals, and from one another. And yet, no matter how much we identify with the prophet’s original audience, we must remember we are not the only ones who mourn. We can’t center ourselves in this text without recognizing that it is also for those who are truly—and literally—held captive, for those who are systematically oppressed and beaten down. This poetry of promise reminds us to witness—and truly see—the suffering of those we have intentionally or unintentionally exiled.

In this image, I invite you to look into the eyes of the one held captive. What do you see? What do you imagine is his story? Now imagine how God sees him.

He grips tightly to the bars that hold him in place. Yet, the oaks of righteousness, sown by the God of justice, break through, proclaiming a different fate. God’s dreams, represented by the gold stippling, become a garland crowning him with glory instead of mourning. This is his Great Exchange. May it be so for us as well.

— Lisle Gwynn Garrity