A few pieces of art that have meant something to me this season are Brian Kershisnik’s “Nativity”, some lines from Hamlet I spent a bit of time considering, and Sara Groves Christmas album.
If you click on Kershisnik’s painting, you’ll get a better look at the movement of the piece. The crowd of angels or saints are huddled in mass around Christ, those in front of Him pressing toward the child, but not to stop, but to move through and beyond toward something else. It’s an evocative statement. I think this is Kershisnik’s nod toward God in three persons, the crowd moving on to worship God, as though Christ came to point us toward the Father. In the painting, many of those who have moved past Christ are singing.
And I like the expression on the face of Joseph, his hand over the eye closest to the crowd, yet uncovered toward his son. He seems human, and in dilemma for having been given a child, who was God, but who was also his child. I wonder in what way Joseph loved Jesus. The Child was not His own, biologically. And Joseph knew the child was from God. I think the painter captures something special here.
And the size of Christ, smaller than a baby might be, as though to accentuate the fragility and humanity of God incarnate, nursing, dependent on the creation, all in humility. He became man. And also the litter of puppies at the feet of Mary, perhaps to bring out the earthy reality of birth, and further elaborate the theme of humility. Not that one pup is moving toward the Christ, while the mother is turned toward God.
(Brian Kershisnik’s “Nativity”)
This quote from Hamlet feels right, perhaps, because Portland has been so quiet in the few days leading to Christmas. There are no planets striking, no witches charming. God quieted the town. I love that Shakespeare would use a bird to prophesy the coming of Christ, and nod to the child’s victory over evil. And of all holidays, Christmas has a most sacred feel. It is commercialized, sure, but no market force will compete with the overwhelming spirit of love and intimacy that invades us as we celebrate the coming of Jesus.
“Some says, that ever ‘gainst that Season comes; Wherein our Saviours Birth is celebrated, The Bird of Dawning singeth all night long: And then (they say) no Spirit can walk abroud, The nights are wholesome, then no Planets strike, No Fairy takes, nor Witch hath power to Charme: So hallow’d, and so gracious is the time.” Shakespeare From Hamlet, Act. i scene i.
And as of late I’ve been listening to Sara Groves. I’ve been to Sara’s home in Minnesota, and I can imagine her at Christmas, back in her studio, reflecting on the birth of Christ. Her music has endeared me ever since I heard her a few years ago now. There is a subtle depth of meaning in her Christmas reflections that I appreciate. She has been a good guide, this advent.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. Christ has come.
On Christmas eve I am missing my Daisy Jane, the beagle, who is “holiday-ing” at the vet while I travel. Daisy Jane is a rescue dog – not sure if I rescued her or she rescued me, sometimes. She was abandoned in a foreclosed home for a week, and suffers from separation anxiety as a result. The two of us have had a long journey of it. She tore up my brand new bathroom (chewed up cabinet and drawer fronts, opened all the drawers and emptied and chewed up the contents, chewed off the window sill and more) which has now been partially repaired. The cost of the things she has torn up, her prescription for the anxiety, etc., do not begin to compare to the joy she brings me. We have been through a beginning obedience school, which I highly recommend. The difference in her behavior is wonderful. I’m no expert, but I can tell you that you are rewarding Lucy for crying when you hold her while she is doing so. Just look away from her and wait until she is quiet, then hold her all you want.
I love the painting Nativity for its freshness. Thanks for introducing me to it. The expressions are amazing, truly evocative of experiencing first hand the Most High God. Evoking emotion is a difficult thing to do on canvas.
I’m an old English major, but I honestly did not recall a reference to the Christmas season in Hamlet. I’ll have to take a look back…and listen to Sara Groves. As for myself, I heard Audio Adrenaline’s Little Drummer Boy on the way home from a Christmas Eve service tonight, and downloaded it first thing when I got home so I can enjoy it on my drive tomorrow. AA’s interpretation of the song is to me fresh, much as is the painting Nativity, in this holy season of remembering and celebration which you and Shakespeare have so aptly described.
Oh wow. It’s so very moving and beautiful.
That is one of the most beautiful works of art I’ve seen in a long, long time.
And on such a night as this.
I’ve allowed the profane to usurp the holy;
and blamed it on the culture around me…
For shame.
“The humble shall see this and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.”
A blessed Christmas to you and Lucy.
what a beautiful painting.
how curious it must have been for the angels, who knew Jesus before he became flesh.
don,
thanks for sharing the art. very cool song by sara groves. merry christmas.
I wish Christmas was happy for me, with angels flowing all around me. Unfortunatly, my family is scatered, and I’m stuck here in Florida, where Christmas is in the 70′s. And not the hippy kind, but the temperature kind. My ex(who I live with…) has basicly ruined Christmas morning with another nit picky argument about something that had accured lastnight. I just wanted an appology, but she won’t admit fault. I almost can’t wait to move out. If Christmas is about gifts, I didn’t get that this year. If its about spending time with family and friends, noda. If its about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, well if heaven was listening, I blew on a kazoo. Yaey for Jesus…. wooo…. my sad lonely celebration. And its going to get lonelier when I go homeless and live out of my car. Atleast all the meaningfull holidays will be out of the way.
Merry Christmas, Bah-Humbug….
I’ve actually never seen that painting before. I like it.
And you can’t go wrong with Sara Groves!
Merry Christmas, Don.
I have read of many churches celebrating Christmas with Pageants that include an actual baby portraying the role of ‘baby Jesus’. Our first child Ruth, was born December 12th, 1981 and was chosen to be ‘baby Jesus’ for our church’s (Reba Place Fellowship) Christmas Eve service. Last year, our grandson, Charlie, born on Oct. 19th 2008, was chosen, also at Reba Place Fellowship.
But in prison no such ritual exists.
I wasn’t even thinking about babies being in Christmas plays back in 1972. This was yet another year in prison, the difference being this was my first Christmas as a Christian. The Christmas service held new meaning for me as we sang the traditional Christmas Carols bringing with it a hope for a new life with a redeemed future. Christian volunteers were a part of our service at the U. S. Medical Center for Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.
As our service wound to completion a cry was heard. The faint whimpering of a baby. My first thought was that I wasn’t hearing what I thought I had heard. I had been in prison for many years and had never even seen a baby inside of a prison (not counting my infrequent times in the visiting room.) But there it was again, a baby crying. Someone, a volunteer, had brought their baby into the service wrapped in a blanket unnoticed by the guards. I then thought, there was our ‘baby Jesus’. The parents of the yet unknown child were the children of an older couple (Lloyd and Nita Colbaugh) who had only a few years previously begun their ministry to the prison. Even the great-grandmother, (Mom Carter) was a volunteer and had played a significant role in my own conversion, telling me that God had a plan for my life.
Life would go on and the incident of ‘baby Jesus’ coming to prison would fade to a memory, until the baby grew up and now is known throughout many countries far and wide as acclaimed Christian singer/songwriter Sara Groves.
Don:
Thanks for sharing these things with us. I am one who gets somewhat Grinch-like (when his heart was 3 sizes too small) because the focus of the season not only ignores Jesus, but encourages us to embrace the non-Christian values of materialism, envy (when we don’t get what we want), and boasting (when we do get what we want).
Having said that, there’s still something amazing about God sending Himself as a rescuer to us, as we’d be without hope otherwise. So what you have shared here, the true story illustrated in three art forms, is very valuable and helps heart of people like me grow a size or two.
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, Don.
@John Thompson,
Thank you so very much for sharing your story. I literally gasped at the end. And then was in a wonderful state of awe at how God works in us and through us in amazing ways.
This comment has little.. ok nothing to do with this blog. I just thought maybe somehow you’d be more apt to read a note on the most recent blog. I just wanted to thank you so much for writing the four books thus far. Each has been so encouraging and meaningful to me. I feel like our stories of faith and the upbringings of them are very similar. The God i know is so different than the one that apparantly wants to dominate American politics, and spend more money on corny sayings and steps that depict how to be a good Christian(whatever that is), than on actually going out and providing the social justice that we were commanded to. I have wanted to write non fiction books of your style before I even came across them, and now it seems you’ve already written everything I had to say. I’m just glad to find that I’m not the only one of my kind. Thank you for letting me laugh, and sometimes cry with you. Thank you for being such a huge part of reviving my faith in a God that is bigger than our perceptions of Him, and our supposed reflections of Him. I hope that someday I will be able to meet you and give you the gigantic hug you deserve.
God Bless,
Brittni Caudill
Reno, NV
(P.S.- You really should have come through Reno/Tahoe on your way to Oregon. Another beautiful scene God slaps me in the face with every once in a while to remind me of his glory.. and his love.)
I’ve enjoyed her album all christmas through along with Kendall Payne’s newest and Rosie Thomas. They’ve been in a playlist I titled “sweet christmas” and well…it’s been my soundtrack.
You and Sara always seem to find the nooks and crannies* of the heart and the mind and bring them to light. That’s why I appreciate you both so much.
(*not to be confused with “crooks and nannies.”)
Lisa
Dear Don.
Thanks for writing about art. I like it a lot.
And I think that you’re swell.
Amy P.
So random question. This has nothing to do with christmas or the video. But my brother and i were interested in a summer position in colorado and we live in houston also and we were wondering how you got the counselor position.
Thanks for sharing that picture, it is very haunting I can’t help but to stare at it. I am intrigued that the angels have babies. I have never imagined a baby angel.
Candace Brown
Happy Birthday and 2009, Don. Enjoy both!
I (finally) pulled down my “Complete Works…” and looked up the lines from Hamlet. The passage was duly marked, with references to the imagery of morning. To paraphrase, the things that instill fear cannot walk about in the morning, and according to the lore referenced by the night watchman, throughout the fearful, dark night(s) just before Christmas, the bird sings not just at morning, but all night long, so that the fear of the night things is unnecessary. And, our fear of the night things is unnecessary….As you have stated, the Child has overcome evil.
[...] year around Christmas, I ran across this piece of artwork on Don Miller’s blog. The piece of art is called “Nativity” and the artist is Brian Kershisnik (click on the [...]