December 25, 2012

Atlanta homeless man's nativity scene

Atlanta homeless man's nativity scene he made
  and donated to the Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip 

I first published this post December 8, 2011.

I tagged along with Jonathan to Atlanta's Church of the Epiphany to listen to his choir rehearse their holiday concert. In the church entrance, I chanced on an exhibit of nativity scenes featuring a collection assembled from a collector's global travels and gifts received. While many scene creators used high-end materials (crystal, gold, enamel), the simplest, "poorest" materials (scraps of straw, newspaper, wood, fiber, and wool) attracted me most. And the homeless man's arrangement of stones (shown in the photo above) triggered my longest pause and reflection.

Two more scenes among my favorites.

Native American

South American

Church of the Epiphany
2089 Ponce de Leon Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30307

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5 comments:

JeSais said...

Lovely!

Emily said...

Thank you for the cool nativity scene pictures! I especially like the first one.

Anonymous said...

Those photos say it all. The stone scene was gorgeously folk, abstract yet simple.

Paul

A said...

I am enjoying these little Nativity scenes. A few years ago, I bought my mother a beautiful hand-painted porcelain set, which she has displayed joyfully since. But today I dropped by her house and she also has out the "old" one that we had when I was a child. It is much less "fine" - she bought it the year they moved into their first home, before I was born. When I was little, I played with the figures and used them to puppet the Nativity story. If it had been fine porcelain, I would not have been allowed to do that. I have such fond memories of the old set and was so happy to see it displayed today.

I especially love the blockish one from the homeless man. It allows for self-interpretation of the scene. Also speaks somewhat of the importance of the reflection on the scene to the man. Perhaps a prized possession. A lovely thought.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, dear Tamar! Christmas is a celebration of friends, family, joy, love and rebirth -- which makes it a celebration we do all share in. Thinking of you -- hope to see you again very soon -- and the creche pics are just wonderful.