Print Details:

• Museum-quality posters made on thick, durable, matte paper.

• Paper is archival and acid-free.

• Unframed prints arrive rolled up in a protective tube.

Frame Details:

• Alder, Semi-hardwood frame

• Black in color

• .75” thick

• Acrylite front protector

• Lightweight

• Hanging hardware included

• Made in the USA

FROM THE ARTIST:

As a Baptist, I was taught from a young age that baptism and communion are purely symbolic—they are considered ordinances in our tradition, not sacraments. We believe that God doesn’t need us to say particular words, take particular actions, or use particular materials to impart grace. But even with the beauty I find in such a radical statement, I do think we sometimes miss the mystery of it all.

There is holy mystery in God’s grace. There is holy mystery in bread and water and wine. There is holy mystery in the Triune God who became flesh. There is holy mystery in the Spirit blowing through the early church, igniting a movement among oppressed and occupied peoples that would spread across the globe. There is holy mystery in the way light bends and refracts and creates tiny rainbows across my living room wall when the sun shines through the front door. There is holy mystery in all of it, mystery we are too quick to dismiss.

Even before the Enlightenment, humankind was skeptical. The onlookers at Pentecost thought everyone filled with the Spirit was actually filled with wine. The Pharisees were so dubious of the man born blind that they called his parents to testify. Was there equal disbelief and astonishment at the other miracles? Did the wedding guests mutter about the wine tasting watery? Did the disciples dig through the baskets of leftover loaves and fishes? Did the neighbors think Lazarus was a plant for Jesus’ magic show?

We don’t want mystery—we want certainty. We want answers wrapped in a nice bow. But instead we get the enigmatic Spirit in whatever form She shows up. We get bread and wine and water and flame. We get harmonies and incense and stained glass and the cross. We get coffee and serenity prayers and hugs and Pride parades. And though God doesn’t need to, God somehow uses them all to impart grace. Grace upon grace upon grace. Thanks be to God.

—Rev. Anna Strickland