Our book for December is Christ and Christmas.
Here's a passage from Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck on this subject:
In March 1893 Mrs. Eddy asked Mr. Gilman to work with her on illustrating a new poem she had written, “Christ and Christmas.” They worked together throughout the spring and summer to get the pictures just as she wanted them. The book was published at the end of November with both Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Gilman listed as “Artists.”
- from the Biographical Glossary p. 450
Picking up this book after some years of neglect is deeply satisfying. Its illustrations and poem stop me in my tracks. It is all so very fresh. Each page reveals new details upon each review. Most significant to me is the depiction of light in each of the eleven paintings.
I wonder which one is your favourite? Perhaps the one which depicts a kindly older gentleman intently listening to the little maid who is reading to him from the Christian Science textbook Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy? That illustration has the caption:
I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. —Christ Jesus
(Christ and Christmas, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 33:1)
Surely a potent message for us this Christmas.
Julie Swannell
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