The Twelve Books of Christmas, January 1

For this 8th day of Christmas, I recommend a very simple Christmas book:  "The Nativity", with pictures by Julie Vivas.  It is simple because the text is the Christmas story from Luke.  It is unusual because the pictures are so bright and whimsical.  We don't often associate the word "Christmas" with "whimsy."  There is also a sort of ordinary-ness to the pictures.  The shepherds look unkempt.  The baby looks joyful, full of surprise at being born.  Mary and Joseph look like peasants, wearing ragged clothes.  There is a wonderful series of pictures near the beginning of Joseph trying to lift a very pregnant Mary onto a donkey.

Bethlehem looks over-crowded.  The shepherds who peer over the baby's crib look filled with wonder.

I can well imagine that some would prefer a more dignified and obviously reverent book about the nativity.  There is a place for the books where Mary and Joseph and Jesus are all wearing haloes, reminding us of their holiness.  But this book reminds us of their humanity.  Their ordinariness.

This is New Year's Day, as well as the 8th Day of Christmas.  This book invites me to see the grace of God in unexpected ways and unexpected places -- and unexpected people -- in the new year.

Today the year is new-born, filled with wonder and possibility.  Today look again into the eyes of the new-born Jesus, and be born into his life.