Illustration of Shirley Erena Murray's hymn, "A Place at the Table." (Lyrics)
(Created on commission)
16 x 20"
Watercolor, Prismacolor colored pencils, and gesso on illustration board.
Chairs, clockwise from bottom left:
“For Young and For Old”: High chair, rocking chair. Rocking chair is cushioned to represent age, dignity, and wisdom - arranged in a position so that the person seated in the rocking chair could feed and nurture the child in the high chair.
“For Woman and Man”: Two straight-backed chairs. The chairs are face-to-face, presenting the ongoing discussion about gender inequality in the church and our culture at large. The chairs are not cushioned or comfortable - the conversation is not always easy, but always important.
“For Just and Unjust” / “Abuser, Abused”: Boy, this was not an easy section to illustrate. I really struggled to imagine BOTH chairs as broken - and especially BOTH chairs as welcome at the table. Still learning to live in Murray’s beautiful words: “In anger, in hurt, a mindset of mercy; for just and unjust, a new way to live.”
“For Gay and for Straight”: I used a graphite transfer technique on these chairs to ensure that both were exactly alike in terms of desirability and structural quality. Both chairs face forward, equal, proud, showing off their unique coloration.
Last year, I had the privilege to be introduced to Shirley Erena Murray’s beautiful hymn, “A Place at the Table” for the very first time. The request to illustrate Murray’s hymn was very exciting - and very challenging. How does one illustrate the concepts and complications that follow along with truly, deeply flawed human beings and a truly, deeply loving God?
There’s a verse in Revelation that I’ve always loved: “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:2)
As I thought about Murray’s hymn, I thought about this verse - And I imagined God’s abundance, which Murray so beautifully describes as a table with places and plenty for every single person who has ever lived. A tree and a river of life. Leaves that heal the nations. No more want. No more inequality. A place at the table. For EVERYONE.
After the table, I began to imagine the complicated human relationships that Murray describes as chairs - open chairs, chairs just waiting for an occupant. Seats at a feast. Chairs that carry the marks of our gender and sexuality and age and even our pain. But every chair, EVERY chair, is welcome at the table, is welcome in God’s love. And every chair is waiting for an occupant.
I hope that as you view the painting, you see yourself in at least one of the chairs. I hope that as your eyes drift from the chairs to the landscape, that you are drawn slowly, inexorably, inward - pulled in the current of the River of Life, toward that table - filled with the abundant, unending goodness of God.
