Embracing the true Advent requires preparation for the coming of Christ into the world. Perhaps, this objective would be better served erecting statues of the prophet preaching in the desert, over the ever-growing luminescence of “holiday” lights and blown up snowman on grass lawns. While I may not be ready either to construct a ten-foot John The Baptist statue in my front yard, such a bold display would strike powerful meaning in opposition to worldly light design, aligning with the genuine reason for Christmas.
In a Christian world free of pagan trappings, the focus of Advent would be almost exclusive to the works of John The Baptist.
I wrote this commentary two years ago. My thinking on John the Baptist being the appropriate Advent and Christmas centerpiece through December has not changed. What has advanced during this time is the ability of Generative AI tools to make my vision a reality.
Christmas is, in my reckoning, the fifth most important feast for Christians in general and Catholics specifically, with Advent being by definition the preparation time beforehand. It is for this importance the primary directive of Advent should be on Christ’s last herald.
(Christmas being the fifth, the other four feasts of greater importance are Good Friday, Easter, Holy Thursday, and Pentecost. A topic for another article and time.)
If you review my first article on John the Baptist, you will see two of my early attempts to create AI images of him. They are crude, especially by today’s capabilities, and certainly when compared to the title image of this second article on John the Baptist.
So yes, I have had this scene in my head for a long time, and thanks to Google’s Gemini image generator, I was finally able to convert my proposal from a concept in my mind into a tangible picture, which is fairly accurate towards my original intention.
For the record, I ran the prompt identically through Microsoft Copilot, and its results, on several attempts, were a bit cartoon-ish, even though I tried to emphasize realism. Gemini’s looks almost too real, scarily so.
Here is the prompt I used to create the above image:
I would like your help to re-imagine what Christmas, or more specifically, Advent lawn decorations would look like if their focus was on the true reason for the Advent season, the preaching of John the Baptist, to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Christ. It is a heavy topic, I know, but with your help, I think we can collaborate and create an image that represents what “John the Baptist” lawn decorations could look like.
I want the focus to be on a having a statue of John the Baptist as the center piece, as John is described in the Scripture passages below. Additionally I would like:
– A dove in the scene, as described in John 1:32
– A small pool of water at the base.
– Provide the inscription “Prepare Ye The Way of The Lord” in a tasteful manner somewhere on the scene. It could, for example, be inscribed around the bottom pool of water, or perhaps on a sash worn by John.
– An Advent wreath interwoven within the display, with three purple candles and one pink candle.
– Any other imagery you fill would be appropriate as stated in the Script passages below.
Please let me know if you have questions before we start.
Mark 1:2-8
As it is written in Isaias the prophet: Behold I end my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee.
A voice of one crying out in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.
John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, until remission of sins.
And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
And John ws clothed with camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle abut his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey.
And he preached, saying: There cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
I have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
John 1:32
And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him.
I reviewed all key passages about John the Baptist in all four versions of the Gospel. The image of the dove, interestingly but not unsurprising, is found only in John’s account.
There are small references to the Scripture descriptions of John and his work throughout this AI-generated lawn decoration. In early versions of the prompt, there were other people present, listening to John or kneeling and praying before him, in allusion to the traditional Nativity scene. But I felt these diluted the overall impact, when the focus here should be John and John alone, if only to reinforce the intention to make this scene distinct from the Nativity.
Water seemed not only relevant but a necessity for this display, even if the temperatures are ironically too cold in most of the Northern Hemisphere for “real” water in the pond.
I specifically added the traditional Advent wreath myself, complete with the traditional three purple candles and one pink candle (for week three).
I would be interested to know what you think of this proposal, especially if you believe, like me, that Christmas has become too commercialized and diluted, and has lost its way on heralding the coming of Christ into the world.
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