Transformation
by Elouise
Shepherds and sheep
Transformed at the sight
Of one small baby in a
Rude bed – the table set
Unexpectedly for all who
Dare follow this child into
Our upside-down world of
Rags to riches-and-glory–Now made small and lost
In an upside-down kingdom
Of lowly shepherds and dumb
Sheep besotted at the sight
Of a tiny homeless babe
Birthed in a stable beneath
Stars in the night sky
I know. It isn’t Christmas. Nonetheless, during the past week I enjoyed revisiting Dinah Roe Kendall’s collection of her paintings, Allegories of Heaven. In it she explores the “Greatest Story Ever Told.” The collection includes Kendall’s brief comments about her paintings, and short excerpts from Eugene H. Peterson’s The Message.
These days I’m learning to spend half an hour each day with myself. Not with a list of things to do, but with something I love or with nothing at all except the view from my attic windows. Which is why I began looking at this collection — a Christmas gift I received years ago.
The simplicity and awe of both shepherds and sheep grabbed my attention and prompted my thoughts in the poem. It’s never too early or late to consider this invitation to join the upside-down kingdom and become part of the revolution.
How to do this at my age? I’m not sure, but I know it will put me in good company no matter where it’s found.
Looking forward to a new week!
Elouise♥
©Elouise Renich Fraser, 23 June 2019
Artwork by Dinah Roe Kendall found at art.com
Telling the Truth 
Why is it that religious paintings always seem to have non- Jewish looking people in them, surely they don’t believe that their subjects are not Jewish,
After all wasn’t Jesus Jewish? Probably had one of those odd looking split beards that orthodox Jews seem to sport too
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Hi Brian. The artist isn’t trying to show us what it looked like back then. She’s giving her own artistic interpretations of various events in Jesus’ life. Her work suggests connections between today’s world and the social/political/religious world into which Jesus was born. And so she incorporates ideas and perspectives from her own life as she experiences it. For me, her paintings are lively and thought-provoking. Especially in light of today’s political, social and religious realities. The fact that Jesus was Jewish is important. Still, he lived and interacted with people from other religious and ethnic backgrounds–and invites us to do the same, seeing ourselves in them and vice versa.
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