Advent: 12 December
Good morning,
Behind today’s window, as we reach the mid-point of the Advent Calendar, are an image and haiku on the birth of Jesus. The image is an Orthodox icon of the Nativity, which I saw on the Greek island of Corfu in the Antivouniotissa Museum.
The icon tells the nativity story. Mary worships her son Jesus who is laid in a manger, a feeding-trough, in a cave where animals including ox and ass feed. The harsh, rocky landscape exemplifies the hardships faced in creation. Above is a star, which the Magi, on the left, point to on their journey. Shepherds, on the right, are hearing the news from an angel, while a large company of angels worship the child in the manger. Orthodox tradition has two women helping with the birth, one a midwife. They are depicted low down on the right with a basin of water. Joseph, depicted as an old man, is low down on the left. The white-garbed man with the red wings may be the angel telling Joseph in a dream to accept Mary as his wife, or indeed to flee with his new family to Egypt.
Such fragile cargo,
cord cut, limbs wrapped, baby laid
gently in sweet straw
Yours,
Donald.