Touched by the Spirit - Reflection from Author and Artist Kendra Lacy
When I was a kid, my mom and I took several day trips to New York City to—among other things—see the museums or at least shop in the museum gift shops.
I still remember our trip to the Cloisters and my mom’s reaction to the Medieval tapestries there. Some research now tells me they must have been the Unicorn Tapestries, but honestly, I don’t recall. What I do recall is that my mom was fascinated by them.
“Look at this,” she said to me, leaning in tight against the tapestry, her finger mere millimeters away.
I never did see what she was pointing at. Apparently, millimeters away was just close enough to set off the alarms.
My mom froze, her mouth open, eyes wide. There was a security guard standing a few feet away. He gave her one look, closed his eyes and shook his head. The alarms stopped and fortunately, we were not kicked out of the Cloisters.
It’s a shame though that touching art is forbidden. It’s forbidden for a reason, obviously, to preserve the art, but can you imagine being able to touch the stitches in those tapestries, or run your hand across the brushstrokes of Van Gogh? Can you imagine in that instant making a literal connection to an artist long passed?
Many years ago, I asked my mom to create Stations of the Cross for my church. She did so with a lot of decoupaging, gold-leafing and antiquing. We hung them in the sanctuary and years after my mom died, I would go into the sanctuary when it was quiet and I could be alone, and I would run my fingers across each Station and feel my mom’s presence there. She had made those Stations for me, out of love, and I could feel the love there.
And so it was—with my mom in mind—that I sought out to create my own Stations of the Cross that others could interact with in a way we’re not used to seeing in art—by touch.
Each of the Stations I created is an abstract representation of the story of Jesus’s final hours, and each Station invites you to touch it. No alarms will go off, I promise. But think about this … think about how the sense of touch was so important to Jesus’s ministry. Think about Thomas wanting to touch Jesus’s wounds in order to believe He had risen. Think about the blind man healed when Jesus mixes His spit with the dirt on the ground and rubs the mud in the man’s eyes (John 9:6). Think about the bleeding woman convinced she will be healed if she just touches Jesus’s cloak. Touch is so important.
My hope is that everyone who encounters these Stations will be daring in how they proceed. My hope is that everyone will be touched by the Holy Spirit as they interact with each Station.
Think of the love, the intense LOVE, that Jesus showed us with each step to Calvary.
May you find yourself blessed by that love this day and always.
Meet the Artist during Holy Week as she guides us through this Lenten tradition in a brand new way.
Monday, April 14 @ 11:00 a.m.
Wednesday, April 16 @ 8:00 a.m. & 7:00 p.m.
