Advent, Day 15: Among Us

LOOK: Visitation by Beth Felker Jones

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Dr. Beth Felker Jones is a theologian who teaches at Northern Seminary near Chicago. This past year she has been making digital collages of biblical figures, especially women, with the assistance of AI technology. She shares them on her Substack, Church Blogmatics, and offers them for free with watermark or just $10 for a high-resolution, watermark-free download.

Her Visitation, she says, “imagines Mary’s visit to Elizabeth in Luke 1, flowing with milk and honey,” symbols of abundance and nourishment. (The promised land is often referred to in scripture using this poetic expression; see Exod. 3:8, Num. 14:8, Deut. 31:20, and Ezek. 20:15.) With the coming of a Savior, a great spiritual bounty awaits God’s people.

Luke the Evangelist describes Elizabeth as “filled with the Holy Spirit” (1:41). The Spirit is present in the center of this collage, silhouetted in purple, the color of Advent. His wings touch the women’s foreheads as if to bless or to join them together in celebration.

Luke also says that John the Baptist “leaped for joy” inside Elizabeth upon hearing Mary’s greeting (1:44), already recognizing that the one she bore was the Messiah. Jones shows this exultation of the in utero prophet. He splashes in the waters of his mama’s womb, as he will one day in the river Jordan, baptizing the repentant. Meanwhile, the great I AM, enfleshed as a preborn baby, sleeps inside a fiery ring in Mama Mary, crowned as king.

The words of Mary’s Magnificat form the backdrop of the scene.

LISTEN: “Among Us” by Nick Chambers, on Advent Songs by Incarnation Music (2023)

My soul will magnify
The Lord who looked on my
Lowliness with grace
My soul will magnify
My neighbor’s precious life
I see Christ in their face

Refrain:
God is among us
In human disguise
Born as one of us
To open our eyes

My soul will magnify
The Lord who took on my
Lowliness in flesh
My soul will magnify
My neighbor’s desperate cry
For in Christ they are blessed [Refrain]

Based on the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), “Among Us” by singer-songwriter Nick Chambers highlights how God’s becoming flesh helps us see the imago Dei (image of God) in our fellow humans. There’s an old Orthodox hymn that says, “Christ was born to raise the image that fell of old. Christ came to restore the beautiful image of God within humankind,” the image that had become obscured through sin.

With Mary, Elizabeth, and baby John, let us celebrate the Lord who brings salvation, raising up the lowly, restoring the broken, and reminding us of the dignity and belovedness of our embodied selves.

This is one of eighteen Visitation-themed songs on the Art & Theology Advent Playlist.