Finding some hope in a different Christmas season

I never imagined I would experience the holiday season where public health leaders would ask us to stay at home and avoid gathering with our family and friends on Christmas.

But even with all the festive decorations, our Christmas trees garnished with sparkling ornaments and lights, and our desire to fellowship with others, we still pose a severe threat to one another.

The coronavirus vaccine is being dispensed in the United States. However, many valid concerns, justifiable anxieties, and fears exist about being inoculated.

Meanwhile, many people are experiencing loneliness, painful memories, grief, persistent economic problems, and turmoil this Christmas. Small business owners continue to face challenges of keeping their doors opened.

Yet on Friday, we celebrate Christmas — a holiday that touches so many people and cultures around the world because of its message of hope, love, joy, and peace.

Once, I wrote about an 1886 oil painting titled “Hope,” painted by Victorian artist George Frederic Watts. The hunched and barefoot woman in the painting is dressed in tattered clothing. She is strumming on the last unbroken string of a harp that she chained herself to, her ear to the instrument to hear the music.

Interestingly, the woman sits on what appears to be a globe of the world, and she is blindfolded. Seen in the sky is a twinkling star that one can easily miss because it is tiny.

Using my imagination to interpret the painting, in the woman’s search for what remains of her possessions, she finds a harp amid the rubble. All the strings are broken except one. The woman puts her ear to the harp to hear the single note that gives her hope, igniting her faith.

When we look at a globe of the world, we see mostly blue because the earth is largely water. However, in the painting, the globe-like object is a thick rust brown, indicating that a disaster has dried up most of the earth’s water. Nonetheless, splashes of blue remain, suggesting that some life remains in the soil.

The star is tiny, as mentioned earlier, providing a glimmer of hope to the woman who finally looks up. The star has always been there, though.

And while the woman may appear to be on the edge of despair, she refuses to submit to it, which is why she has chained herself to the harp. She blindfolds herself not to the challenges of the new world but to the distractions that could easily throw her off course, disconnecting her from the giver of hope that is manifesting in the twinkling star.

Watts wrote that he received a letter from a poor man who had been “down on his luck.” However, the man wrote he was encouraged by the painting, which brought him back from the brink of despair. A prostitute, who was also on the verge of despair, saw a photograph of “Hope” in a shop window. She purchased the painting and gazed at it until “the message sank into her soul, and she fought her way back to a life of purity and honor.”

Centuries ago, a twinkling star shined in the sky, guiding Wise Men to the Messiah, who would bring hope to the world. They were filled with ecstatic joy when they found him because the problems of that day were many.

This Christmas will be different. However, like the woman in the painting, we can look up at creation and marvel at the twinkling stars that reminds us we can hope for better days.