At first I assumed the figures below the cross were an abstract design, but then realized that it was made up of the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, symbols of the all-encompassing presence of the divine as both beginning and end. Upon trying to speculate why those particular symbols were chosen for the entrance (which is also, presumably, the exit) of a church, it occured to me that among Christians the two events most celebrated, most talked-about and argued over, are Jesus's birth and death/resurrection, the beginning and the end of his time on Earth. Nothing in the middle is so emphasized - not his teachings, not his miracles, not his personal relationships. The two most important holidays are Christmas and Easter, which would seem to indicate that the two things most worthy of celebration were the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ, among Christians anyway. Interestingly, both events were said to be miraculous - his birth of a virgin, and his resurrection after death. Since we know the cross symbolizes the death part, could it be that the colors red and white could have been chosen to symbolize the blood of his birth and his mother's virginity, thus combining the two sacred events as integrally as the two intertwined Greek letters?At the time I had these thoughts, I had been reading The Woman in the Shaman's Body, a book about the relationship between womanhood and shamanism and the role of female shamans throughout the world's cultures. In particular I was reading a chapter about rituals and attitudes regarding birth, and came across the statement that "While the masculine traditions focus on a shaman's symbolically dying into shamanhood, the feminine traditions focus on the shaman's being born into it." That a crucial part of shamanism is the idea and practice of traveling between worlds, and the interactions between the soul and the body, the heavenly and the earthly, it makes sense that birth and death are particularly important as the most complete transformations a person undergoes: from purely spirit into carnal form, and from living body to eternal spiritual existence, and it also makes sense that a life-changing transformation such as a calling to become a shaman (or priest or healer or lover or parent) can be described as a death or a birth, depending on your attitude. Converts are said to be "born again," and a dream about giving birth can signify a huge life change.
The fact that in Christian theology, god was born and killed in human form says a lot about its ideas of the divine. God really is "one of us," as the popular song suggests, though not affected by the imperfections of everyday life - the spaces between the great transformations that remind us of what is really important. If you want to really turn your priorities upside-down, watch a baby being born - or better yet, have one of your own, though obviously only if you're in a position to raise it. When such transformations occur, the barriers are broken, and all becomes clear for a short time. That's why those events are chosen as the most godly, not because god is most present for them, but because we are more ready to experience him then.
Of course it is also important to remember that, though god may be alpha and omega, he's also the rest of the alphabet. Keeping godly ways and attitudes throughout our everyday lives is the difficult part, maybe even impossible, but no less essential.
(Now may be a good time to acknowledge that our friends Clare and Bryan have finally had their baby, Greydon, this past May Day. Congratulations!)
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