The three beasts of burden, who lay beside Him, take a moment to look at us. ‘We were there,’ they seem to say. ‘We understand. Do you?’ Ironically, the “burden” rests with us. Three different species – a ram calmly positions himself below a cow. His horn innocently brushes the cow’s chest while a donkey hardly thinks twice about nuzzling over the cow’s back. No bullies. No bullied. Just peace. And so, the simple symbolic extension arises: Can we, especially today, live in peace with each other, regardless of color or culture or creed? There is hope. While the animals’ gaze hardly reflects a resounding ‘yes,’ each of their faces, despite a backlit scene, reflects a frontal light, a light that surely emanates from none other than we, the viewer. It is our light, our spirit, our hope for a better world.
The terrain in this painting is trimmed in such familiar cultural greenery as Easter palms and desert-like Christmas trees. The Holy Family themselves are elevated on the edge of a cliff, almost other worldly. The perfect role models pose in an almost timeless silhouette before a setting sun and a long foretold star above. The moment of this painting is truly ours. We do not gaze so much into the world of our savior’s birth; rather, it is His world, expressed thru the eyes of three simple beasts of burden, which calls upon us to give new life to our world, to lighten the burden, if we will, to simply “love one another.”