Coming Together for Christ

…hi!

Is it too late to wish you guys a Merry Christmas???

(Probably, alas!)

Well, here’s hoping that you had a Merry Christmas! Our Christmas was a little strange, because the baby managed to get a cold slightly before Christmas (don’t worry, it was just a cold and nothing worse!) and then it started spreading all around. (So that is why I haven’t been bothering you with art lately!) But we managed to have a fun season nonetheless, and our children are already looking forward to next year’s Christmas season!

Anyway, since I am way behind with pretty much everything, I wanted to share this picture with you…

There’s a lot of reasons why I love this painting… I mean, just look at it. Isn’t it beautiful? The jewel-like tones, the way the star seems to shine a light, the way the Holy Family seemed to shine out of what is a very busy composition!

But I think what I like about this particular painting in this particular season is the throngs of people that have all come together. Look at all those people! It’s not just the Magi who are here to adore Christ… it’s so many other people! Look at how they are all coming together! It looks like the whole world has come together to unite and worship Baby Jesus, who is held aloft in His mother’s arms! Perhaps you can even look a little bit closer to see if you can find yourself in the picture? (I am the woman who is sitting down and trying to sneak a peek while holding a wiggly baby who is trying his best to wiggle out of my arms!)

And this year, it seems all the more meaningful to me to see those throngs of people together. Because of the cold that the baby had, we stayed home instead of going to mass, and now it looks likely that we will miss every single mass of the Christmas season, since once again the baby has the cold… which, honestly makes me sad, because I love mass so much. The peace that the Presence of Jesus gives to me is hard to explain, but it is there in the Church, and I cannot deny it. To miss that peace from that Presence for so long feels awful.

And yet…

This painting reminds me of the fact that, even though this particular Christmas season has been incredibly weird, the whole world still came together, in the odd ways that we have right now, to celebrate the birthday of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In fact, millions upon millions around the world celebrated it this year!

No, we couldn’t do much to celebrate this particular Christmas… in fact, honestly, if your Christmas was anything like mine, it was quite a humbling Christmas indeed. And yet, we, like the Magi, came anyway to pay our respects to Christ, who is the Savior of the World, and to acknowledge His Kingship over us all.

And perhaps this enough.

May He grant our hearts peace for this coming new year, no matter what troubles await us next!