Desolation

Garden mesh, scrap material and twigs. Tapestry made in Lent 2018 by Solihull URC folk.

This tapestry was made during Lent, giving time and focus for reflections around the theme of desolation - and ultimately the presence of God within such an experience.
We began with the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, but the images are of Gethsemane with sleeping disciples and bearing the agonies of faith on your own, the empty city, where the cheering crowds of Palm Sunday quickly dissipated and reconvened in hostility towards Jesus, and the Crucifixion with the sense that even God has abandoned.
If you decide to reflect on this theme too at some point, I recommend doing this along with the physical activity of making something similar to this tapestry.

Having been 'in storage' for a few months, the tapestry was displayed again in relation to Remembrance Day and the 100th anniversary of the WW1 Armistice. We need reminding that desolation does not equate with the absence of God in our lives.