I painted this just as I was entering pastoral ministry. At the time, in 2008, I was enrolled in my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), a kind of chaplaincy training for people entering all kinds of ministry. As part of my training, I was visiting patients in a large hospital in Milwaukee, and for the first time in my life providing hands on ministry to sick and dying patients, and the families of the sick, the dying, and the dead. It was a challenging, and at times traumatic, experience.
As part of our course we had an optional art day, which I and another student attended. My project was this water color. The painting represents a clam broken open by the waves, colored in its own blood, the ocean swirling up against its damaged shell. It’s a symbol of what I saw and experienced during my time at that hospital.
Today I count it a privilege to provide ministry to those affected by illness and loss. As a chaplain I can’t stop bodies and hearts from breaking, but with God’s help I can be with people in their suffering and perhaps open the spiritual springs of comfort, strength and love.
