More on Advent 4

Here are some thoughts via Steve Taylor on Advent 4 and the painting Halt of the wise men, by John La Farge.

John La Farge was born in 1835 in New York. He grew up to become a painter, a writer, a lawyer and most famously, a stained glass window artist.

He painted and decorated in some of the most famous churches and buildings in the USA, including Trinity Church, Boston, the altarpience for the Church of the Ascension in New York, Harvard University and the Supreme Court building at Baltimore.

A feature of La Farge’s stained glass artistry was his use of colour. He explored new ways to harmonise and intensify colour. Rather than use separate panels of distinct stained glass, La Farge found ways to blend and harmonise, to make light look more natural, more pure and more intense.

Halt of the Wise men is a painting. But look at the light.

Start with the intensity and purity of light in the top left.

Now look at the other source of light, the light that shines from the leading men in the middle foreground.

Now consider Christ as the light of the world. Christ as the light in the top left, intense and pure and full of harmony.

Christ as the light of the world that shines. That shine on, and shines from, the men in the middle.

As I look at light in this painting, I find myself asking;
In what ways is the light of Christ, full and intense and harmonious and pure, shining on me?
Shining from me?

And where there is light, there’s also dark.
Look closely at the darkness in the middle of the painting. There are figures of people on horseback.
Very shadowy and very faint. Figures of people leaving the journey on horse back.

Which makes me wonder, What could distract me from my journey toward God?

La Farge was hugely influenced by Oriental culture. He also traveled and painted throughout the South Pacific.

His South Pacific painting was characterized by the ability to paint people honestly, as they were, with real human sympathy.

And here in front of us we have the wise men from the East. From the Orient.
Painted by a man with an ability to paint people honestly, with real human sympathy.

Which makes wonder about these wise men as people. What motivated them to follow a star? What family did they leave behind? What did they think and talk about as they traveled?

Halt of the Wise men. Where am I on my journey with God? What is motivating me? What is distracting me? How is the light of Christ shining from me?