Childbirth pictures, “Talj, Talj,” and extra – Artwork & Theology

SUBSTACK POST: “Advent and Love” by Micha Boyett, The Slow Way: “There was a mother and man who loved her. There was a baby. The baby was the story God was telling, and that story became a seven-pound human and wailed. His mother cleaned his body with cloth and water, and fed him at her breast. She hoped he would latch on. It took a while. She bled and napped. He napped and cried again. He was God’s story and human. This is how he made a home with us. His making a home with us was love, and that love created a way for peace, hope, and joy.” Micha Boyett is a wonderful religious author, and I’m thrilled to be taught that she has an Advent e-book popping out subsequent yr!

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CHILDBIRTH PHOTOGRAPHY: “2019 Birth Becomes Her Image Contest Winners” and “2020 IAPBP Competition Winners”: I’ve by no means birthed a child or witnessed a dwell beginning, however each time I see images of the method and its end result, it makes me emotional with pleasure. Seriously, I tear up as I smile. I don’t know these individuals, and but I’m awed and overwhelmed.

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Since Christmas is concerning the BIRTH of Jesus, I discover it significant to spend a while with childbirth images to remind myself how God selected to return to us—by means of a girl’s beginning canal. It’s a surprise that by no means ceases to amaze me. Although there are a few exceptions, it’s an image of beginning that artists decoding the Nativity usually don’t wish to contact (partly as a result of ladies’s our bodies are nonetheless largely taboo, partly as a result of the Catholic Church teaches the beginning was fast, painless, and cold), and so within the creative canon, we get largely clear, calm photographs of postpartum bliss, not the laborious and messy earlier than. But isn’t that, too, a part of the miracle and the glory of Christmas?

The boldface hyperlinks above are to previous Birth Becomes Her and International Association of Professional Birth Photographers competitions. If you’ve got another beneficial compilation sources or favourite childbirth photographers, I’d like to know!

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SONGS:

>> “Love Came Down” by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange: For her 2024 album Winter Light, the British choral composer Joanna Forbes L’Estrange wrote a brand new setting of this beloved Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti.

>> “Yeshu Thungea Ningla” (On the Day Jesus Was Born) by James Lhomi: Released by Lareso Music, this music was written by James Lhomi, a big Lhomi Christian musician in Nepal. The Lhomi are a Tibetan individuals dwelling in India, China, and Nepal. Lhomi can also be the identify of their language. The music opens, “Let us a sing a sweet song on the day of Christ’s birth, let us rejoice with a joyful heart, for Emmanuel has been born unto us.” [HT: Global Christian Worship]

>> “What a Day It Is” by Evan Thomas Way: Singer-songwriter Evan Thomas Way, cofounder (with Josh White) of the Deeper Well file label, launched this music on his 2014 debut album, Only Light. At the time, he was the worship pastor at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon; now he’s an govt pastor there.

>> “Talj, Talj” (Snow, Snow) by Fairuz: The Lebanese singer Fairuz (فيروز‎‎,) is likely one of the most celebrated singers within the Arab world. Born to Christian Maronite and Syriac Orthodox mother and father, she is now a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. She popularized the Arabic Christmas carol “Talj, Talj” on her 1977 album Christmas Hymns, which you’ll be able to watch her carry out on a tv particular within the video beneath (I can’t discover the yr or identify of the present or broadcaster). The lyrics paint a wintry scene of snow falling and hearts flowering, for “there is a baby awake in the cave, and his sweet eyes are full of love.” [HT: Global Christian Worship]