November-December 2024 - Kataaloomaa

During this Advent season, people around the world will begin their celebration of the birth of Christ with nativity scenes — decorating homes with treasured family crèches and selecting holiday cards with elegant nativity paintings. It’s no wonder that these images continue to be favored Christmas traditions. They help us imagine the moment when God incarnate entered human history as “Emmanuel . . . God with us” (Matt. 1:23, KJV).

Our cover art, the screen print Kataaloomaa by Sri Lankan artist Givantha Arthasad, is meant to stretch our imaginations. The title is a reference to the Greek word kataluma or lodging place that Joseph and Mary sought in crowded Bethlehem (Lk. 2:7). We easily identify the artist’s symbolic rendering of just such a structure as the focal point for his composition. But a close look reveals that this lodging place not only shelters a manger but supports a cross. And even more intriguing, this nativity scene appears to be set in the galactic center of a solar system, represented by dots of mixed color to suggest billions of planets arranged in elongated, concentric circles. What does this unusual imagery suggest to you?

Kataaloomaa invites many interpretations, and among them it reminds us that long before Jesus made this earth his home, he was the divine Word through whom Creation came into existence (see Jn. 1:1-3). In his divine nature, Jesus is both omnipresent and intimately close to those who seek him. So as we anticipate the birth of Christ we sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

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Cover art courtesy of Givantha Arthasad. ©Givantha Arthasad. Prints of cover art are available from [email protected]