A New Day and a New Life!
for December 24, 2013


9" X 12" oil on linen, available to frame
click here for a larger image


Merry Christmas!

The month of December has gone by fast! We're finally coming up at the manger! This obscure morning image above may not be what some people immediately have come to mind for the manger scene, but it serves me well.

I spent some time in the woods in various places around the country in the early morning and I've always enjoyed watching the coming on of the daylight, the dawning of the new day's sun --the light breaking in upon darkness. There are many colors you can see in that liminal time and lots of details within the seeming obscurity --it is really quite amazing. In morning time we can observe that change of atmosphere thicker air or with fog and mist coming off of the land and water, and watch and listen as the animals are waking up and moving out to graze, and birds are already in motion. I spent some time in Texas and witnessed daybreak on different properties in West Texas and near Fort Worth so that may have influenced this image more than other places, but I guess it could just as easily serve today as a section of the bible land or just about any place where there is grassy property and cattle and sheep together. In the distance there is the hostel or inn and some folk who lit a fire which is creating a layer of smoke lingering at a certain level of elevation for another interesting light effect. And maybe this painting shows the sun or the star --you can use your imagination. The story declares that the star traveled and led the Magi to the house. To this house or a stable? Matthew has given us a little latitude here in this story, just enough information, like my painting --and all the other details remain a little vague.



I want to think about and imagine this little spot of respite for the young family with their newborn -- a family that couldn't fit into the inn and fittingly a child that came into the picture not in even the most humble human dwellings but nearby in the stable.

I've heard people talk about this as some kind of stable underneath the building and I've heard people discuss the fact of Mary being unclean through the childbirth and all that so she had to to be separated from the household anyway (I guess then all births would have been that way), but frankly all we get in the story is there was no room in the inn and so they settled for what was available and that wasn't very much. But it was enough, and a good start actually. It was warm and dry and maybe a little cozy? Who knows? I probably would have liked it. But I don't know. And you don't know. All we know is the news that here is how God came to live among us. How wonderful!  

The more you look at it, my painting  and the gospel stories, I think the more you will see or can see. We just need to spend time with them. You need to read and reread them and think about it and look at it and imagine what is possible because of this new life. It might be a bit vague to you at first, but as the light dawns and grows higher it should become clearer, brighter and better!

--Pastor Jack