Blue Monday – Book, The Night of the Child

Blue Monday is a delightful weekly feature sponsored by Sally at Smiling Sally.

For today’s post I’ve chosen a lovely book which had a blue and gold dust jacket and a blue cloth cover that is sprinkled in gold. The title is The Night of the Child: Photographs from the Upper Room Museum Nativity Collection, published by the Upper Room Books in Nashville, Tennessee.

The text by Robert Benson is an amazing collection of brief essays exploring the significance of various aspects of the nativity of Jesus. It is accompanied by photographs from the nativity collection in the Upper Room Museum, located in Nashville.

Here is a quotation from the author which describes the work of creating nativity scenes.
“We have taken the essence of the story—a manger, a mother, a father, a child—wnd we do our best. We paint it on bowls and plates and canvases. We fashion it out of clay and wood and straw and glass. We sculpt it, mold it, twist it, tap it, whittle it out of something in an attempt of make a reminder for ourselves and a starting point for someone else.”

Here are a few pages from this inspiring book:


Some of my favorite photos show examples of the Baby Jesus from various sets:

The Upper Room website has this information about the musuem:
“Visitors also enjoy The Upper Room Museum, whose permanent collection reflects the international, interracial, and interdenominational nature of The Upper Room. In December and January, the museum exhibits The Night of the Child, collection of nativity scenes, with over one hundred renditions from cultures around the world.”

Enjoy more Blue Monday at Sally’s blog, Smiling Sally.