Image: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, The Martha Jackson Memorial Collection: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, 1980

What if the earth itself could preach? Rev. Rob McPherson explores Alma Thomas’s Earth Sermon: Beauty, Love, and Peace, reflecting on how creation proclaims God’s beauty, love, and peace. Isaiah 55:12–13 and Thomas’s inspiration guide a time of prayerful contemplation, inviting viewers to hear God’s personal word for them today.

Isaiah 55:12-13

In this episode of Art and Prayer, Rev. Rob McPherson reflects on Alma Thomas’s vibrant abstract painting Earth Sermon: Beauty, Love, and Peace. The title itself becomes a meditation—imagining the earth as a preacher, proclaiming the virtues of beauty, love, and peace. Drawing from Thomas’s own words about the tree that inspired her work, we explore how nature speaks not only in patterns and colors, but also in truths about life and faith.

The reading from Isaiah 55:12–13 invites us to hear creation’s testimony: trees clapping their hands, mountains and hills breaking into joy, and the flourishing of life as a sign of God’s blessing. Together, scripture and painting open a space for prayerful reflection. We consider how the painting’s bursts of color—what Thomas calls “the children of light”—elevate the soul, soothe the spirit, and point toward the Creator.

Through guided contemplation, viewers are invited to listen for what the “earth sermon” is saying to them about beauty, love, and peace, and then to shift their attention to what God may be saying personally in this moment. The episode closes with an encouragement to carry these messages into daily life, breathing in God’s gift of life and breathing out praise.