5 Pieces of Art (Music, Poetry, Images, etc…) Changing My Christmas Brain-Chemistry

Between snow days, sick kids, birthday celebrations, school spirit days, Christmas parties, and holiday preparation, I have felt like moments of contemplation and wonder this Advent season have been few and far between.

Not to mention, the same twenty or so familiar Christmas songs have been playing on the radio on repeat since Halloween. I have been craving some fresh interpretations of the story of the Incarnation, and I suspect some of you have been, too.

I wanted to share five pieces of beautiful and challenging art to see if they stir you the way they have me. Not all of them are brand new but may be new to you. These have caught my eye and my breath, as well as breathed life into what can become a tired story:

1. This Gorgeous Online Concert with Poems and Performances: Songs of Hope

The Gospel Coalition made an online concert in 2020 in the midst of pandemic darkness. It has some of my absolute favorite songs on my Advent playlist in intimate, stripped down performances between Scripture readings. My favorite three songs in it are “Joy (Elizabeth)” by Poor Bishop Hooper at 11:23, “Mary Consoles Eve” by Sandra McCracken at 22:08, “Refugee King” by Liz Vice and Madison Cunningham. The spoken word performance of “Mary’s Song” by Blair Linne at 58:59 is POWERFUL. If you need something to nourish your soul with beauty this season, I can’t recommend this one enough.

2. The Song “I Will Find A Way (The Song of Emmanuel) by Jason Gray. This song stops me in my tracks every time I hear it:

“At the end of this run down tenement hall
Is the room of a girl I know
And she cowers behind all the dead bolt locks
Afraid of the outside world

So how should I come to the one I love?
I will find a way

Many thieves and collectors have used that door
But they only brought her shame
So she won't even open it any more
Still, I will find a way

I could call out her name with love through the walls
But condemnation is all she hears
I could break down the door and take her into my arms
But she might die from the fear

So how should I come to the one I love?
I will find a way, I will find a way
How should I come to the one I love?
I will find a way

No hiding place ever kept her safe
So she hides inside herself
Now to reach her heart, the only way
Is to hide in there as well
I will hide in there as well

She gave up on love, waiting for a change
But a change is coming soon
How could she not love the helpless babe
Who is waking in her womb?

I found a way, I found a way

She'll know I am coming before I am here
When she hangs her head, she'll see me there
And then when I come she won't run away
All the beauty and joy will return to her face

And what of the loneliness?
Now it is gone
Lost in the bond of a mother and son
Every sin that she suffered at the hands of men
Every single disgrace will be washed clean again
I will love her completely and when I am grown
I will carry her out of that tenement room

I am doing a new thing, and soon you will see
I am coming among you and my name shall be
Emmanuel”

Songwriters: Jason Gray / Andy Gullahom

I Will Find a Way lyrics © Centricity Music Publishing, Nothing Is Wasted Music, The Gullahorns Music, Tunecore Global

3. “The Politics of Birthing God” by Kat Armas

This short reflection ponders Mary’s position in the empire she lived in and the kingdom of God. It was a grounding piece for me, asking me to consider women on the margins and God’s choice to partner with women like her— and me.

“Through it all, Mary resists empire’s scripts for womanhood. In her world, women were imagined as property, their voices deemed untrustworthy, their bodies valued primarily for producing heirs. They were expected to remain silent, invisible, obedient. Mary refuses these expectations at every turn. She speaks. She questions. She prophesies. She carries the divine in her own body. She becomes the first theologian of the Gospel. She stands at the foot of the cross when male disciples scatter. Her entire life is a refusal to let empire define what women are for.”

4. Kelly Latimore Icons- Christ in the Rubble

From Latimore’s site:

“Red Letter Christians partnered with artist Kelly Latimore of to create this new icon, "Christ in the Rubble," which illustrates the prophetic message that if Jesus was born today, he would be born "under the rubble."

Kelly wants his art to be a ‘holy pondering’ - a process that potentially brings about a new way of seeing.

Our hope is that this icon, "Christ in the Rubble" will create more dialogue among Christians in the United States during this holy season about the ways our beliefs and actions - or lack thereof - contribute to the violence we're currently witnessing in Gaza. How can we shape a culture of Christianity where love truly has no boundaries? How do we create a world where our poor, homeless, refugee, Palestinian Savior - born to a teenage mother and later condemned to death - would be cherished had he been born today.”

5. Poem by Irene Zimmerman

Incarnation

In careful hands

God held the molten world—

fragile filigree

of unfinished blown glass.

Then Mary’s word: Yes!

rose like a pillar of fire, and Breath

blew creation into Christed crystal.

What are the poems, pictures, songs, paintings, or reflections that are keeping your heart from giving into to weariness and despair this season? I’d love to know what you have been discovering or cherishing anew this year. May the breath of the Spirit enliven the light in your darkness this week.

Advent Resource Review: God on the Move

Rivoli