I usually just like to peruse the interpretations, but, as a Christian, I have found that many people have a hard time honing in on Sufjan's dense Christian imagery. This song is inherently...though, in typical Sufjan fashion, not overtly...about the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Christ' incarnation, or more plainly, about finding out what it means to be Christian in a pagan world.
I don't read too much into some of these lyrics...or maybe I just don't know what he means in all of them. The scrambling around in the dark reminds me of Plato's cave, where we sit around watching shadows on the wall thinking that we've found what's real, true, and beautiful, when we've only seen a wimpy projection of that truth. Every once in a while, we might ascend out of the cave to catch a whiff of the beautiful Son, but so often, we are merely toying around with ugly things that we call beautiful. Eventually, we need to grow up and see this Beauty. I'm not sure if that latter half refers to the Christian familial greetings between brothers and sisters...or echoes Jewish stories about familial separation and reconciliation (i.e. the prodigal son)...or maybe he just liked that image...I dunno. Everything doesn't have to fit exactly.
I'm pretty sure that the star on the head is a halo...used to denote holy people in icons and classical Christian art. The mother is the Virgin, blessed among women. I love that she is included here...I'm not Eastern Orthodox or Catholic, but the idea that a woman nursed a divine child...one that has the Government/the world polis on his shoulders...that he needed to be mothered and nursed...just fits this song perfectly...and enlightens any of the Christian faithful.
Here we have the prodigal connection again...Christ calling those to the great banquet, which was denied by those honored with an invite, but taken up by the outcasts. It seems so silly that anyone would sit shivering in the cold, on the outside looking into such a wonderful scene...but there we are in the cave, fooling around with shadows...with empty things like schedules, and networking, and upward social mobility, and sports, and TV specials, and even with our own brokenness. I think the greatest image in this is engineering...I think of driving onto a bridge, simply assuming that the people who designed it were correct in their judgment. So much of our constructed lives are touched by engineers...not that those people are evil...but how empty are those building in comparison with what Sufjan describes in this album?
And so, when Winter moves on into Spring, we are left with silly things like Christmas sweaters. They are ugly out of season, and go up in the closet for next year. Isn't magic of Christmas something underneath all this silly facade that we engineer? Something so simple as a boy lying in a manger...God Himself...and how He brings us together, beyond all the things with which we waste our lives...brings us to Him.
I'm not assuming that everyone agrees with Christianity...but Sufjan's faith shines through so beautifully in this song...as it does in much of his music, if you know what you're looking at. That's not to say non-Christians don't enjoy the music as well, but you might want to at least look into the imagery if you're not familiar and you enjoy this album and others, like Seven Swans or Michigan. Sufjan is one of my favorite artists, as he is obviously Christian without having to force his faith into his art. Simply beautiful!
I usually just like to peruse the interpretations, but, as a Christian, I have found that many people have a hard time honing in on Sufjan's dense Christian imagery. This song is inherently...though, in typical Sufjan fashion, not overtly...about the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Christ' incarnation, or more plainly, about finding out what it means to be Christian in a pagan world.
I don't read too much into some of these lyrics...or maybe I just don't know what he means in all of them. The scrambling around in the dark reminds me of Plato's cave, where we sit around watching shadows on the wall thinking that we've found what's real, true, and beautiful, when we've only seen a wimpy projection of that truth. Every once in a while, we might ascend out of the cave to catch a whiff of the beautiful Son, but so often, we are merely toying around with ugly things that we call beautiful. Eventually, we need to grow up and see this Beauty. I'm not sure if that latter half refers to the Christian familial greetings between brothers and sisters...or echoes Jewish stories about familial separation and reconciliation (i.e. the prodigal son)...or maybe he just liked that image...I dunno. Everything doesn't have to fit exactly.
I'm pretty sure that the star on the head is a halo...used to denote holy people in icons and classical Christian art. The mother is the Virgin, blessed among women. I love that she is included here...I'm not Eastern Orthodox or Catholic, but the idea that a woman nursed a divine child...one that has the Government/the world polis on his shoulders...that he needed to be mothered and nursed...just fits this song perfectly...and enlightens any of the Christian faithful.
Here we have the prodigal connection again...Christ calling those to the great banquet, which was denied by those honored with an invite, but taken up by the outcasts. It seems so silly that anyone would sit shivering in the cold, on the outside looking into such a wonderful scene...but there we are in the cave, fooling around with shadows...with empty things like schedules, and networking, and upward social mobility, and sports, and TV specials, and even with our own brokenness. I think the greatest image in this is engineering...I think of driving onto a bridge, simply assuming that the people who designed it were correct in their judgment. So much of our constructed lives are touched by engineers...not that those people are evil...but how empty are those building in comparison with what Sufjan describes in this album?
And so, when Winter moves on into Spring, we are left with silly things like Christmas sweaters. They are ugly out of season, and go up in the closet for next year. Isn't magic of Christmas something underneath all this silly facade that we engineer? Something so simple as a boy lying in a manger...God Himself...and how He brings us together, beyond all the things with which we waste our lives...brings us to Him.
I'm not assuming that everyone agrees with Christianity...but Sufjan's faith shines through so beautifully in this song...as it does in much of his music, if you know what you're looking at. That's not to say non-Christians don't enjoy the music as well, but you might want to at least look into the imagery if you're not familiar and you enjoy this album and others, like Seven Swans or Michigan. Sufjan is one of my favorite artists, as he is obviously Christian without having to force his faith into his art. Simply beautiful!