“Falling Mist” | James Wheeler
My wife and I recently enjoyed a short, but very wet, break in the Yorkshire Dales. Now, Swaledale is beautiful in any weather, but to be honest it was not putting on its best face for us on this occasion.
One day, taking refuge from the rain in a small art gallery, one picture caught our eye. It captured brilliantly the bleakness of the landscape in which we had been walking, as seemingly endless cloud and mist hung heavily over a rain-soaked dale. And yet this was no picture of unremitting, two-dimensional greyness. In the foreground was texture, detail and colour; a hint of vibrant purple heather brought the picture to life and gave it a depth which even the rain could not wash away.
We loved the picture so much that the following day we returned to the gallery and bought it. On getting it home we hung it in our living room and stood back to admire our purchase. In truth, we were a little ….err…. underwhelmed. The bleakness was there, but what else? Where were the vibrant colours? Where was the life and warmth that had so drawn us to it?
We left the picture a few days on the living room wall, and then moved it into our kitchen: a much brighter room with spotlights on the ceiling. I angled one of these onto the painting and - there it was – the colour and vibrancy that we had loved so much. The painting is still in our kitchen, and we get pleasure from it every day.
Sometimes it helps to shine a light on something to see it properly. The charity Crisis started out as “Crisis at Christmas” shining a light on the problems of homelessness at this time of year. But, of course, homelessness is not only seen at Christmas, and the charity later expanded to work all year round to help homeless people rebuild their lives.
As Christians, Christmas is a time when we shine a light on God’s love for us, shown in the birth of His son Jesus. We celebrate God’s incarnation, and amongst the busyness and commercialism of Christmas, we try to take time to focus on that most incredible of gifts. We pause and give thanks that He became flesh and lived amongst us. If you are able to attend a children’s nativity service this year, be thankful that this is a story that fresh generations never tire of hearing.
It is good that we can shine a light in this way at this darkest time of the year. But, of course, God’s love shown in Jesus is there all the time, not only at Christmas. Even when the bright lights and shiny things of Christmas are packed away for another year, that love continues to light our way. Just like in my picture, where the colours of the heather are there whether the spotlight is shining on them or not, so the vibrancy and depth of God’s love is there for us every day. Whatever the weather.
Philip Clarke