Someone at the what is now "We Pray for Wheaton" Facebook page eloquently employed the famous Mt. Sinai transfiguration mosaic as an illustration of how everyone at Wheaton matters, and as a symbol for praying for this place. It was fitting, as we have a show of mosaics right now in the Art Department from the Chicago Mosaic School. I can only add that the mosaic having been seriously damaged might be a better way of focusing prayer. I was at Sinai during the restoration several years ago and was able to snap this photograph. I even pass around bits of the tesserae used in the restoration in class. I am hoping that the service tonight (of repentance, not celebration) will be the first step towards restoration. There is a lot more that needs to be done.
Another (perhaps melodramatic) image might be that it was seriously difficult to drive the stakes of our Lenten prayer signs into the frozen ground today. But if we really are going to lengthen our cords and strengthen our stakes, so must it be. My colleague Noah Toly has a more in depth analysis of where things stand at this point. Suffice it to say here that it is Shrove Tuesday, and we have some shriving to do.
