Christmas Images and Thoughts

http://beautifulangle.homestead.com/x.html
To read more about Beautiful Angle go to http://beautifulangle.homestead.com/. I saw this image posted when we were briefly in Tacoma some time this past year and took a photo. Beautiful Angle expresses truth and art so powerfully and creatively. Really, if you just ponder this print and don't read anything else of this post, you'll be just fine.

Painting in First Presbyterian Church, Capetown, South Africa
I have a collection of Christmas cards that I have gathered and saved over the years. All of them depict cute little shepherd boys (none over age 10 or so - most under age five.) Shepherd themed cards are always popular but I was struck this year how inaccurate and unrealistic most of these images are. While young boys around the world today are often still responsible for looking after their family's animals, it's not quite the cute picture that most cards portray. The reality of a shepherd's life is that it is tiring, dirty, uncomfortable, lonely and dangerous at times. I'm guessing there were not many cute cherub-like shepherds looking after the sheep that first Christmas night. I imagine they were a little more rough and rugged - a mixture of odd anti-social misfits, young men filled with adolescent angst and antics (you know what teens can get up to when left alone for long periods of time!) lonely and perhaps poor - certainly no one on top of the social network. Yet it is this motley crew that hears the good news first. God in the flesh has arrived. Joy to the world and Peace in spite of what you see around you...Peace. And so the mystery and the scandal begins.

I don't know why the shepherds were chosen to hear the news first. Perhaps everyone else had too much going on and they would have ignored or quickly forgotten the angelic interruption. The shepherds at least had time on their hands to ponder and act. But for whatever reason, the tired, the lonely, the misfit, society's least and last were chosen to hear the good news first. That in and of itself is good news for which I am thankful.

This tin cut out is one of our favorite images (and purchases) that we brought back with us from South Africa. Love the facial expressions when Mary and Joseph realize what the wisemen are bringing as gifts! (A gourd/pumpkin, chicken and traditional stew) Tin Town in Capetown makes all sorts of creative tin gifts and ornaments.

For more information go to http://www.tintown.co.za/profile.html



Whatever your situation this Christmas, whatever state of construction or deconstruction of Christmas, whether you are lonely or surrounded by friends and family, may you also experience peace and joy. Thank you for continuing to wander with us. We've covered some distance this past year together - From Tacoma to Europe to South Africa to Southeast Asia, back to Seattle/Tacoma and now to Durham. The following is a card we sent out recently containing some of our favorite images of this past year. Merry Christmas!

Duncan and Andrea