After the grand visual displays of Advent and Christmas, it is often tough to get anyone excited about creating visuals for the start of a new year. Here is one that is not too difficult to make. With all of the hoopla surrounding the turn of the new century, this visual serves as a reminder that everything—including time—is held in our God's protecting hand.
Brief notes on the banner's construction and a downloadable pattern can be found below.
Symbols
The most common symbol for God is an outstretched hand descending from clouds. I used medium gray for the hand against a background of not-too-dark purple. The cloud shape was made of brighter blue fabric.
Alpha and Omega
To add to the symbolism of God's watchfulness and protection, I was tempted to include an eye in this hanging. Combined with the hand, though, it was just too much. Instead, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet suggest the beginning and end of all time. The letters, like the starburst behind the hand, are made of bright gold felt.
Take This Idea Farther
Adapt, adapt, adapt. Although many of you have asked for specific patterns, some of the best visual enhancements to worship are adaptations—adaptations that take the whole worship space into consideration and are more than just a wall hanging.
Pattern
This banner was designed to be a little less than six feet wide by ten feet high. You'll want, of course, to adjust the size to fit your own space. To help tranfer this design to fabric, you can download an electronic version of this banner with a grid overlay.* Print out this pattern and use the grid as a reference for hand-copying the image to fabric or make an overhead transperancy of the pattern and project it at the desired size onto pattern paper taped to a wall.
*The 1pg/8k document has been saved in the PDF file format which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader application or plug-in.