Some time ago I was asked to do an interview with a dear friend, an octogenarian I have known for a very long time. It was a rather different experience from our usual cuppa and chat when we would talk about all manner of things and solve the problems of the world.This interview was to be about herself and her Christian ministry as an artist and teacher. How did she bring Christ into her art classes?
Armed with my notepad and set of questions I sat at her kitchen table with a cup of tea and a plate of deliciously crumbly rock cakes, home-made of course!Drawings and paintings cover most of the walls in the house – simple line drawings, pastels, watercolours. A common theme of her work is hands and faces, wrought with fine detail and expression. Her pastels frequently show pathways that lead into the distance, with a question: Where does this go? What’s at the end of the path?
‘I always have a path leading to a light, not disappearing into a dark tunnel or closed gate. It needs to be going somewhere, to speak of hope, a future.’
We talked about how to bring our Christian faith into situations such as the art classes that she runs. My friend teaches all kinds of people, children and the elderly, believers and not, accomplished artists and complete novices.
She doesn’t really speak about her faith. She doesn’t mention Jesus.
She listens – as people tell her about themselves and why they want to draw and paint. Gently, she encourages, challenges, observes, suggests a particular way to angle the light, or demonstrates a technique for capturing an expression. But in her manner, in her words of encouragement, in her listening and with her wry sense of humour, she is sharing Jesus with her students even though she certainly is no preacher.
‘It’s a bit like dropping seeds but you never know if they will sprout. Or dropping crumbs.’
Over the next couple of hours and more cups of tea our conversation moved on to nurturing children and how important it is to read to them, all kinds of stories.
For some reason the mention of crumbs reminded me of the story of Hansel and Gretel, how Hansel dropped a trail of breadcrumbs on the path behind them so that they could find their way out of the deep, dark forest. The plan didn’t quite work for the children because birds came and ate the crumbs, but it certainly fed the birds!
Sometimes crumbs are all we need.
The story of the Canaanite woman with an afflicted daughter is a wonderful example of this. In Matthew 15 Jesus tells her it is wrong to throw the children’s food to the dogs, to feed the dogs first. Her response shows her understanding of the value of even the crumbs that fall under the table. She is a woman on the outer and yet she recognises the power of Jesus and has sought him out for help.
Essentially she says, ‘If all I get is a crumb, that’s all I will need, because you are the Bread of life!’
Wow!
This passage from Matthew inspired Thomas Cranmer to write that wonderful Prayer of Humble Access from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer,
We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.
Crumbs can be dropped intentionally or accidentally. Either way they are precious, to nourish and guide.
Sheelagh Wegman, BA, IPEd Accredited Editor is a freelance editor and production editor for the Tasmanian Anglican magazine. She sings in the choir of St David’s Cathedral in Hobart and lives in bushland on the foothills of Mt Wellington.
Sheelagh Wegman’s previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/sheelagh-wegman.html