Our Church Flags: 4. Brazil

Some flags are easy to draw.  This is emphatically not true of the Brazilian flag - I pity the elementary school child trying to reproduce it:

The representation of the night sky has stars for each state - not so unusual - but the number of states (27) and their representation as actual southern hemisphere constellations produce a flag that makes the United States or Australian/New Zealand starry flags a doddle to draw by comparison.

On the flag the night sky replaces the Imperial insignia that was on the flag when the Empire of Brazil was a colony of Portugal.  It represents the declaration of a new start one night!

So at Christmas it reminds us of the Christmas night sky from which the angels brought the message of a new Ruler who would bless humankind with true peace.

The Fine Art of Christmas - Starry Night over the Rhone

Atmospherically this is certainly Christmassy.

It might look good on the card but  Christmas wasn't in Van Gogh's mind when he painted this night scene of the River Rhone in September 1888.  He was fascinated by the colours of night and the challenge of painting them.

To fit the painting on the card, a devastating transaction has happened however.  Here is the original painting:

Leaving aside the colour differences we can see that the original has Ursa Major (the Great Bear) constellation with great prominence.  Van Gogh's intention was to make the stars the star over against the gas lighting.  Instead, the card has left in the lovers at the expense of the stars.

Every Christmas we are prone to cut out a little or a lot of heavenly glory to keep humans in the centre of the picture.

The Wonders of Christmas Cards 5: What's the point?

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

We speculate as to the nature of the star that appeared to the wise men.  We don't think the shepherds have anything to do with the star (they saw angels) but few Christmas artists seem to care about that detail.  On this card the shepherds have seen the star:

Few cards I have ever seen have a star quite so luminous as this one.  I'm surprised, given its brightness, that the wise men could look at it at all unless they had glasses with special lens.

Given that the star in this picture has transformed into something nearer a portent of Armageddon the mystery is why the shepherd is pointing at it.  If his mate can't see THAT star he has a real problem.

Having noticed this it occurs to me that a great deal of Christian effort at Christmas is similar however - pointing at the blazingly obvious.  Whole school nativities are presented portraying a season dedicated to animals (as far as I can tell a nativity with live animals cannot have any animals as the only ones mentioned in Scripture - sheep - were left in the fields), or dedicated to babies.  Babies are not the solution but the problem I think, growing up in sin and needing the blazingly obvious real Christmas focus - a Saviour. 

Great minds think (April 2016)

So, as the month that began with All Fool's Day comes to a close we recall that it also contained this announcement - the grand plan to send tiny spaceships propelled by laser beams to explore our galactic neighbourhood.

Nobody would deride the great achievements of Professor Hawking, made more memorable by the physical limitations from which his great mind operates.  And does anyone doubt the elevation of the human spirit that is attained by the longing to boldly go where no silicon chip has gone before?

On the other hand there is nothing like one of these kind of grand projects to cast doubt on the sanity of the rich and clever and perhaps of us all.

Anyway, here's two ideas to choose from:

'Earth is a wonderful place, but it might not last forever. Sooner or later we must look to the stars. Breakthrough Starshot is a very exciting first step on that journey.'  Professor Hawking 

That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. The Bible