The bulletin board appears incomplete. It looks empty, now. It looks like it still needs to be filled.
That’s because, during Advent it’s up to you to fill this bulletin board. During the month of December whenever you come to worship you can leave something pinned to the board – a word, image, drawing, colouring of your own creation.
In recent years the art of adult colouring has taken off. Colouring books of all themes and topics cover the sale tables in book and craft stores. You can get birding books and travel books – colouring books of cityscapes and landscapes of all shapes and sizes.
So, be creative! And, what will you post here?
The title gives you some idea. The ‘art’ of Christmas is both literal and figurative. Literal – in the sense of an actual drawing. For example, each Sunday in the bulletin you will find something to colour. A word is attached to the image – this Sunday it is ‘mystery’, one theme of Advent; waiting for God and finding God is infinitely knowable, a mystery that endures a lifetime, a journey of discovery over time and space. Next week, you will find a different word and a different drawing to colour.
You can colour these pictures and post here. Or, you can express a different drawing or piece of art: some image or word that captures the meaning and significance of Christmas. Bring it in and display on this board. It awaits your creativity.
The ‘art’ of Christmas, therefore, is also figurative. We speak of the art of Christmas in the same way we say, ‘the art of living’. There is a way of living as much as there is a way of doing Christmas that is meaningful for you. How do you do Christmas? How do we, as people of God and people of faith, do Christmas? It isn’t always easy to celebrate Christmas in a culture that has truncated Christmas with materialism and incessant, burdensome activity.
Our visual expressions of Advent and Christmas will give us insight into who we are and our hopes for the coming of Christ this year.
So, this Advent, practice the art of Christmas!