Draw Close: A Creative Companion for Lent
By Stephanie B. Dunn
Upper Room Books, 112 pages
Published Dec. 1, 2024
One Sunday, I set up a variety of prayer stations for my church’s youth, inviting them to “try on” a new spiritual practice. Attentive to varied learning styles, I offered everything from prayer poses to crafting, even a meditation station with an essential oil diffuser. Fifteen minutes in, the youth had all clustered to a single station: praying in color. The meditative coloring and prayerful drawing allowed them to breathe deeply, engaging with one another and God.
Pastor and coach Stephanie Dunn invites us to do the same in Draw Close, a Lenten devotional of brief reflections and heartfelt prayers. She concludes each day’s reflection with gently probing questions that invite our response; the blank pages on the right-hand side provide capacious space for all of us (artists or not) to respond. Dunn also offers liturgy and prayer for small groups interested in incorporating these practices in weekly study or retreats. On Sundays, we are invited to “push pause” and to simply pay attention to the world and God’s work in it.
As I write in mid-November, I am tending to my own emotions, while navigating the anguish my congregation members invite me to carry with them. I wonder: what will the world look like on Ash Wednesday? And how will church leaders respond to that need along the Lenten journey? Too soon to say, but as I behold my mug of colored pencils and the copy of Draw Close on my desk, my breath slows and I feel – dare I say? – calm, for the first time this week.
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