[16 inches wide by 20 inches high, brushed aluminum]
How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? [Psalm 137:4]
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, I participated in an online study of the Book of Lamentations that helped me to name some of the losses I was experiencing. During that time, as increasing numbers of Facebook friends posted about their rediscoveries of jigsaw puzzles as an appropriate stay-at-home activity, I realized that the disorientation I was experiencing in conjunction with the COVID 19 pandemic might be appropriately imaged as pieces of a puzzle that no longer fit together into a meaningful whole.
One of the first losses of which I became aware was the absence of opportunities to raise my voice in song within the context of a faith community. I struggled to discern how I might sing the Lord’s song in a land and situation that were no longer familiar to me.
The background “texture” for digital collage (printed onto brushed aluminum) is Genesis 11:1-9, the account of the disorientation that occurred at the Tower of Babel.
The biblical focus is the Hebrew text of Psalm 137:4, which asks “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
