Treasures in Dark Places

Created by Jenny Spouge.

“I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places” says God to the Persian king Cyrus through the voice of the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew Scriptures (Isaiah 45.3). As someone who lives with depression, I hold onto this promise that even in the times of dark there will be treasures, glints of brightness and hope amidst the gloom. In wonderment I find that God holds me and knows me even then. I remember too that it is out of the chaos and darkness at the beginning that God creates, so maybe dark places can be places of creativity and birth, and maybe it is not true that light = good and dark = bad! I am awed by the way God can take and use the scraps of goodness that people offer and from them create something good for the world, signs that ultimately love and kindness will win; greed and hatred will not have the last word. So I take leftover scraps of paper and thread, the insides of old envelopes and advertising material, stuff left from previous projects, and with them create.

The piece was raffled last year to raise funds for Adavu (https://www.adavu.org.uk/) who work against modern slavery – and currently hangs in the home of a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference!

✏️ Jenny Spouge is a Methodist presbyter (currently without appointment) exploring the links between art and spirituality. Being able to engage in creativity hugely aids Jenny’s well-being and she finds she needs to make time and space for this. Jenny has led creative retreats and worked with a minister on sabbatical to facilitate engagement with spirituality and faith through art-making and hope to expand this area of ministry further. Jenny can be found on her facebook page.

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📧 If you’re interested in sharing a little hope between 5th March and 17th April 2025, get in touch (abrokenpastor@gmail.com) with your contribution. It can be an article, blog post, artwork, poem, song, photo… there are no rules others than it be your original work and offers a little bit of hope.