Merry Christmas

Penny has a print of this Nativity scene by Gari Melchers. She showed it to me several years ago and pointed out what she liked about it - Mary, looking realistically post-partum with her exhausted, yet contented, reclining pose; Joseph seated protectively near Mary and the baby Jesus; Baby Jesus in the manger, the object of Mary and Joseph's wondrous gazes. And there's also the basin of water and rags there beside Mary, to clean up the mess that accompanies birth.

Because "...the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)