At the bus stop

  The Churches Advertising Network is providing an interesting seasonal poster.  It features a bus shelter as a place where the infant Jesus might be. There are curious faces at one side and indifferent folks on the other.  You can tell it is meant to be a nativity scene because the main characters have stylised haloes!  I guess that might put some of my readers off - but if it attracts attention to the by-line “Be part of the action - Church 25-12″ it will have served its purpose.  The artist felt that a bus shelter fitted well in our day and age the place where Mary gave birth to Jesus - and I have to say I agree.  Surely whatever else the incarnation means - and it means a great deal - it means that Jesus came and comes into the real world - in turn attracting curious onlookers and heedless pedestrians alike.  It suggests all the roughness and exposure of that birth - all the ordinariness of circumstance and the wonder of those who were invited to see “Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. . .”   There is no manger of course in this modern picture - but Jesus is exposed to the gaze and indifference of ordinary people about their ordinary tasks at this busy time of year.There is no mention of the magi - and that is good too because they came later, and to a house and their absence means we don’t have to count three of them.  I like the bird on the shelter roof - and the No.33 on the bus stop - although local folks might prefer a No.7 Worle to the Hospital, or a double-decker X1 making an express journey to Bristol.You can download the poster in a range of sizes here.   The artist is Andrew Gadd.You can read the story here - or enjoy an animated version. The real originator of this festive occasion is God. Don’t leave Him out of your thinking.     

This entry was posted on 05/12/2008 at 06:08 pm and is filed under Thought for today. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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