Pentecost!

[This article was originally written for Windows Into Zion, the newsletter for Zion Mennonite Church in Broadway, VA.]

It’s Pentecost today.  I woke up earlier than normal with a mission to start off the day.  A few friends and I have collaborated now twice to pull together squares of knitted and crocheted yarn to affix to random places in our neighborhood.  We installed our first “yarn bomb” on Easter, so it seemed only appropriate that our second be on Pentecost.

The sky was ablaze with oranges and pinks as I walked outside of our home where Justin and I live with six other people.  A London sunrise is always welcome – we’re never sure if we will see the sun on a given day.  At 5 a.m. there are a few people out.  Some are just getting home from being out all night, and some are leaving to go to work.  A city like London doesn’t sleep, and the moments are few when there’s stillness.

A sign of things to come...

 My friend and I reached our destination:  a bus bench outside of a notoriously smelly fish store.  Within five minutes, we had stretched the panel of misshapen and multi-colored pieces around the long bench, securing it together with cable ties.  We attached our signature “You Are Beautiful” sign, snapped a few pictures and headed away.

The challenge in a city that is constantly “on” is to sneak moments into people’s lives, causing them to smile in surprise.  Yarn bombing, for some, has that affect.  (For others, it’s likely seen as a bit of an eyesore.)  Especially on Pentecost, we are reminded that the Spirit moves – sometimes in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.  Our call is to respond to the inspiration that arises, and to seek out where we might be motivated to perform these random acts of kindness/art/prophetic witness.