Romans 5.5 “And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
One of the questions we ask when we hear something that all sounds fine in theory is, “Yes. But what does that look like?”
This tapestry is an attempt with colour and form to visualise and express the reality Paul describes in Romans 5.5. In particular, I am trying to explore and express the rich nuances of the Greek verb ἐκχέω (to pour out). To communicate the full depth and range of that phrase ‘poured out requires additional words such as lavish, extravagant, or in older English translations “God’s love has been shed abroad.”
Other translations include: ‘unstinting lavishness’ (Cranfield); ‘giving without restraint’ (Fitzmyer); ‘intimacy of relationship’ (Gaventa); ‘outgoing and self-giving’ (Longenecker).
The tapestry began at the top with no fixed plan, and grew downwards. The colours and the flow of movement were spontaneous, the two concentric circles left till last. The four chambers of the human heart are surrounded by a Love that is both performative and transformative. The centrifugal force of the movement from the centre outwards, reaches towards the whole Creation and is centred on the Cross given impetus by the Resurrection.
But in truth, this was a tapestry completed in three weeks, and more an outworking of a text I have lived with, and from which I have lived, for a long time. As such, it is a spontaneous prayer of gratitude, because “hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
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