Prayer for Civil Authority
alec vanderboom
Tony Cragg, British artist, born 1949
"Subcommittee," Hirshhorn Scuplture Garden, Washington D.C.
photo credit: bluffton, edu
I love this sculpture, which seems to symbolize D.C. so perfectly. It consists of dozens of giant file stamps, all worn from leaving a mark on thousands of pieces of paper. The stamps are each unique yet also function as a group. They have worn groves from hanging in the same spot year after year. Staring at the sculpture on a blustery winter day, I can easily imagine a tired bureaucratic stamping “approved” or “denied” millions of times over the course of a year. The sculpture stands for both the massive weight and trivial “ordinariness” of democratic institutions.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, enlighten the leaders of all civil authority. Help the rule of law on earth more closely match God’s will in heaven.