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Once upon a time, an amazing church in Denver, Colorado wanted to remind themselves that Christmas is about more than presents.

They made this.

from House for All Sinners and Saints in 2008

And I, a year or two later, stumbled upon it and fell in love with the idea.

Last year, my internship congregation got to do it.

Early concept drawing

Final design

Color guide

PDF'd and printed

Everyone brought in the many Christmas advertisements they'd received, and over the four weeks of Advent, we cut out shapes and colors.  We slowly assembled an icon -- a religious piece of art meant to point us to God.  We took what the world uses to tell us we need more, more, more, and turned it into a reminder that we already have all that we need.

The finished icon

O come, o come Emmanuel.