A Second Look at a Christmas Card No 8: Star Child!

Admittedly the babe appears here to be the child of two aliens.

But the truth is more amazing than that . . .

Happy Christmas!!

A Second Look at a Christmas Card No 7: What if?

On Christmas night we are bound to wonder.  Hopefully we can wonder at other things than this card makes us wonder, for perhaps it makes us wonder . . .

1. What if the wise men had ignored the star and Santa had been called in to bring the presents instead - would he have followed the star?
2. What if Jesus had been born in St Freda's church tower - how would the star have appeared?
3. What if we all had the kind of tread that gives Santa's boots such amazing grip on the rooftops?
4. What if all the trees in the town had the same evergreen fertiliser that the ones near Santa seem to have?
5. What if, instead of being created by God, the stars of the universe and their positioning had been left to a wallpaper designer?
6. What if there were no demand for Christmas cards - how would the kind of artist that drew this make a living?

A Second Look at a Christmas Card No 6: In the Woods

As Christmas Day draws near the calendar of events is more back story and less must-be-done.  This offers the chance to take time doing things that one normally has no time to do.  

Like working out what this picture is.

Yes, here we have a card with snow on it.  Plus some trees, an owl, a brace of white rabbits (one caught, one waiting to be) and a man who appears to have gone outside in his mother's winter nightgown carrying a wreath.  It is not an easy card to understand.

Investigation leads to the Facebook page of Liz, the artist, who appears to draw great pictures and craft work sometimes relating to fantasy themes and enjoy drinking in South Dakotan bars.  And eventually the picture is uncovered as:

Arctic Santa in Forest

Yet the sense of discovery that this gave me was quickly lost in a flood of unanswered questions:

• What other kind of Santa is there but an Arctic one?
• Why has the reindeer turned into an owl?
• Why is this dubious Santa wearing his Mum's nightgown?
• Why doesn't he catch the other rabbit to make a decent Christmas meal?
• And why has he stolen someone's Christmas wreath?

A Second Look at a Christmas Card No 5: The Mouth Speaking

The first thing that struck me about these two cards was how beautiful they were, though they are very different paintings and arrived on different days.  On the face of it the Nativity and a rural snow-scene are the least remarkable of pictures on a Christmas card but something about these is special.  

On turning to the back of them it becomes all the more amazing yet also more explicable.  These are both copies of paintings by mouth artists.  The painstaking attention they exhibit derives from the challenge that the artist faces in delivering any painting and the relative care and pride in the work they do.

This is somewhere near the beauty of the painstaking gift of God at Christmas.