Visio Divina led by Claire Lynch - 9 November 2025
Can God speak to you through pictures? Find out with this approach to prayer and meditation.
Transcript
Let me tell you something I heard last week, that moved me.
You may remember a couple of weeks back in our All In service, where we have kids and adults all together doing church - that Lis set up prayer stations around the room where we could interact with a certain activity, that might help us to connect with God at a deeper level.
One of the stations was a mirror and the invitation was to see yourself through God’s eyes. So, as you look in the mirror, to ask God to reveal all the amazing things he loves about you.
What a wonderful thing to do!
And there was one young boy with his mum, and his mum asked him, “What do you think God says about you?” And the young boy replied, “Oh God doesn’t see me.”
When I heard that story it both moved and fascinated me. That this young boy, in that moment, believed that he was invisible to God. That God didn’t see him. For whatever reason, he had discounted himself.
Now let me tell you this boy is part of a very loving family, he has two wonderful parents, he has been part of Vineyard Kids pretty much his whole life and would have heard on numerous occasions that he is very loved and very special to God.
And I have no concerns for him. I actually think that because of that interaction, now his parents will be able to explore that with him and speak into that. In fact, I fully believe that God took that opportunity to highlight that misconception, so that that little boy will then learn how much he is seen and known by God and dearly loved.
But it got me thinking…two things.
Firstly, that I don’t think that little boy is that different from many of us.
How often might we hear things, repeatedly, but for some reason they don’t stick. Has someone ever been paid you a compliment and you bat it off, because you find it really hard to receive?
Just in these last few months, I can think of 3 different adults, who have been Christians for years, who’ve all said, that they find it hard to really believe that God loves them.
I remember going through a season a few years ago, when I struggled to believe that God actually liked me. I could believe that God loved me, because that’s who God is, he is a loving God - but to believe that God actually liked me, in terms of delighting in me - well I had gotten a little stuck.
Sometimes we carry these distorted ideas about ourselves without really realising - maybe it’s, “oh I’m not a good enough person”, “I don’t deserve to be happy”, "I’m a rubbish mum or dad, or friend”, or “I’m always the one who messes up”, or whatever it might be.
Which brings me to the second thing that I was thinking…
That its only when we allow ourselves to slow down, to think, reflect on what’s going on inside, like the little boy did at the All In - that we really begin to hear what’s going on deep down, what our heart is really saying.
I heard an analogy recently that our hearts are alittle like a deer in a forest. You know how when you walk through a forest and you make lots of noise, you scare all the wildlife away. Picture a deer tentatively watching you, carefully through the trees, ready to run at the slightest loud noise. If you want to tease the deer out, you need to stay still and quiet, and wait - and when that deer feels safe and not threatened, when it’s all quiet and still, it might just take a step closer.
And our hearts are a little like that, it’s only when we make space, take time, be quiet, make it safe, that our heart will tell us what is really going on. It’s in those moments that God’s Spirit reveals to us what he can see and things that maybe we don’t know. And it’s in those moments that God loves to meet us, to reveal the truth about who we really are, and to show us how much he loves us.
At Severn, recently we have been taking more time for reflection and contemplation, in our gatherings on a Sunday or Monday night worship, in our community groups, on retreats to create moments like these where we can be still enough to hear what our hearts are saying and more importantly to hear what our loving Creator might want to show us.
Henri Nouwen, in his book, Spiritual Formation, speaks about it like this…
“Contemplative prayer often brings us to an intimate encounter with the love of God, revealed to us in Jesus. In such an experience we come to know ever more deeply that God is not against us, but for us; not far from us, but with us; not outside of us, but deeply within.
As we take a quiet moment to reflect in a peaceful place, our minds and hearts become still and, in this stillness, become deeper and wider, inviting/unbinding the eternal quality of life in all its fullness. It is in the growing inner awareness of the eternal embrace of God that we find our true freedom.”
And so today, in these next 25 mins, we are going to do just that - we are going to make space, to quiet our inner selves and to allow God to meet us in that place. There’s no particular agenda but to simply to make space for each of us to meet with God. We are going to do this in silence, so there’s nothing else to distract us. However, there are pens and card on the tables, so feel free to write things down, journal, doodle, whatever may help you to relax into this time.
So I am going to to lead us through a contemplative practice called Visio Divina.
Visio Divina means ‘divine seeing’. It’s an ancient form of prayer that continues to be a powerful method of meditation.
We’ve used Lectio Divina before which is ‘divine reading’ a method of praying with scripture and so Visio Divina is a way of praying with images or other media.
Originally religious art, or icons, would be the subject of reflection but any piece of art can be used, it doesn’t need to be a religious icon, it could be an object, it could be a photo.
As we reflect on what we see, we invite God’s Spirit to speak to us through the image or object and in that way we open ourselves up and allow ourselves to be seen, touched, surprised, transformed and loved by God.
So to help us in this reflection, there are a number of photos on your table.
I’d like you to spread them out so they can all be seen. There are different photos on different tables.
Step One (3 mins)
And in your own time, I’d like you to look around at the photos and choose just one. Feel free to look at other tables if you wish, there are duplicates. You may ask God to guide you to the one that will give you the right inspiration for today, he knows what you need. You may be drawn to a particular photo, maybe something catches your eye, you may not know why. You may not be too sure, that’s totally fine - if you get an inkling -just go for it. No need to spend too long on it.
Once you’ve chosen a photo, make your way back to your seat.
You may like to move your chair, or choose a different chair to create a bit of space. Now make yourself comfortable.
Feel free to close your eyes, or lower your eyes. Relax into your chair and take some slow breathes. You may like say the words under your breath or in your head “You are hear with me Lord” as you breathe in and as you breathe out, “and I am here with you.”
Just repeat that a few times as you relax into this time. “You are here with me Lord” , “and I am here with you”
Step Two (3 mins)
Now if you’d like to take the photo and gaze at the whole picture. Notice the shapes, the colours, the lighting.
Notice the detail of both the foreground and the background.
Once you have visually canvassed the photo, note what draws you attention. What sticks out to you? What first captures your attention?
Step Three (6 mins)
Now I’m going to give you some time to pause and ponder on that particular part of the photo. What is it that strikes you about that part of the photo and why?
What thoughts, images, memories spring to mind for you?
Maybe it raises a question? Maybe a Bible verse comes to mind?
What feelings and sensations arise within you? Does it bring you peace? Does it make you feel uneasy? Why might that be?
Pay attention to anything you see, hear, sense or feel. Trusting that God is leading you.
You might like to take notes or journal to crystallise your thoughts. You may even like to draw or doodle as you contemplate.
Step Four (5 mins)
In light of what you have noticed or has come to mind - How might God be speaking to you? Why do you think God drew your attention to this particular part?
Turn you attention to God and ask him how he might want to speak to you through this?
What does he want you to know?
Do you sense an invitation?
Is there anything God would like to give you?
Take this time to enter into a conversation with God as one good friend to another, asking him to show you how he wants to meet you in this.
Step Five (5 mins)
How might you respond to God?
Is there anything you would like to give to God?
Is there anything you’d like to receive from him?
What would you like to say to him, what is your prayer?
Take this time to tell him.
Step Six (3 mins)
And now finally we are going to take some time to simply rest, soaking in this time we have just had.
To quote something I read this week..
“Rest in communion with our Creator - the One who kissed your soul before placing it in your body - the One who loves you without measure. Savour the stillness. Be soothed by Love.”