Christmas art is all around
Everywhere we look during the season we see Christmas-related art. Many cities put up decorations on the light poles and in the city parks. Churches decorate with garlands and poinsettias and festively decorated trees. Homes may deck their halls with boughs of holly. Many put up a Christmas tree with all kinds of artful decorations. Christmas carols and hymns bring in the musical arts to the celebration of Christmas. Some of the art we see might be called religious; some secular.
I’m thinking that the Lord is the original artist, with wonderful scenes in the skies and clouds and in the outer reaches of space, as well as in fields and flower beds and woodlands and gardens and mountains and hills and trees and plants of all varieties. The Lord gave some of us a little art talent to be able to say things in special ways. It is not just by words that we express truth and beauty and hope and vision, but words, too, can be artful and strong, in poetry and prose of many types.
We have our Christmas tree set up and decorated in the living room at home.
I’m of the mind that Christmas is not over when we transition from Dec. 25 to Dec. 26. I want to say that Christmas didn’t end at the end of the day yesterday. Christmas just started yesterday. We’ll keep our Christmas tree up for several more days. I want to resist the commercial Christmas of our contemporary life which seems to rush to start Christmas even before Thanksgiving and then rushes to be done with Christmas on Christmas Day. There is too much of a tendency to say, after we have opened our presents and had our big Christmas dinner, that now we have had Christmas and we’re done (except for the clean-up of course).
Christmas, as originally observed by ancient churches, was a great festival beginning on Dec. 25 and continuing until Jan. 6, 12 days of reflection, worship, festive meals, music, gift giving, contemplation of the grace of God in the gift of the Christ child, treasuring the honor to be found in small, humble beginnings dedicated to great visions and purposes, being refreshed in an invigorated sense of hope and confidence that comes of realizing that the Lord God goes to great measures to restore and make whole His beloved people, and contemplating the fulfilling ways of life which are inspired by the life and message of Jesus Christ.
One of the passages of Handel’s “Messiah” picks up on the Scripture which says, “and the glory of the Lord is revealed.”
I’m thinking that’s why we have art and music and poetry and colorful creations, to reveal the glory of the Lord. Our church held a Christmas musical concert this past Sunday afternoon, lifting up music that tells the story of the birth of our Lord. I’m thinking of a kind of mystery, in that some humble things can at the same time be grand. A simple song like “Silent Night” is at the same time a majestic thing, as it realizes how the Lord may use humble things in great ways. A friend of mine, now deceased, once edited a church newspaper, and in one of his columns he commented on “God’s marvelous ways with mangers!” That provokes some fascination in me, as a fellow who grew up on a farm, caring for livestock. Mangers are places for feeding cows and horses and little calves. They usually are not thought of as beautiful. But even a manger, even a stable scene, is beautiful after the Lord does His work with it.
I’m thinking particularly of the colors we use in Christmas decorations on our Christmas trees and elsewhere. One of the prominent colors is green, usually the deep green of an evergreen tree, be it spruce, pine or cedar. Green is expressive of life and growth and health. The evergreens don’t lose leaves or turn brown in the winter season, so Christians have seen in the evergreen a representation of life that doesn’t end, doesn’t lose vitality, doesn’t fail in health and strength. It is a reminder of the hope of everlasting life in the Lord Jesus.
White is also usually a prominent color. White is an expression of purity, of being made clean.
Red not only is beautiful but is a reminder of the shed blood of Christ, and a reminder that Christmas is not just a sentimental and lovely time, but an awareness of how the Lord addresses the most serious needs of people, especially the transformation of the heart and renewal of healthful and wholesome living.
We also often use gold and purple and blue in decorating for Christmas. These are royal colors, reminders of the exalted worth of the Lord our Creator and Savior. When I was growing up at home, we usually put a gold star at the upper tip of our Christmas tree. It was a star we made by cutting out a star shape in cardboard and then wrapping it in gold wrapping paper. It wasn’t fancy, but to us it was a pretty good star of Bethlehem.
•••
Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge and an award-winning columnist, is vice president of Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at joe369@centurytel.net, or call 621-1621.