One unfortunate consequence of the decline in sending and receiving Christmas cards in recent years is the disappearance of Christmas art. The variety of cards brought a variety of images - some secular, some sacred - depicting aspects of the season.

While most of the cards we received in the Saperstein home featured snowy winter scenes or smiling Santa Clauses, many had more religious themes. Most of the sacred images depicted the Holy Family, or the Madonna and Child. Stars and angels and mangers also abounded. Some were classical images, others modern.

1. Jose y Maria, by Everett Patterson. Used by permission.

One Christmas image I encountered a few years back has stuck with me. It is a modern depiction of the journey to Bethlehem, by Portland comic book artist and illustrator Everett Patterson. Titled Jose y Maria, it was his Christmas card for 2014 but has gone viral in the years since.

Jose and Maria (Joseph and Mary) are presented as a young Latino/a couple looking for shelter outside an urban gas station convenience store. He is wearing a work shirt with his name embroidered, she is sporting a hoodie from "Nazareth High School." The picture is filled with many creative references to the Biblical narrative: for example, a "no vacancy" sign at the "Dave's City Motel" with a signboard announcing the new "manger" (manager with an "a" missing).

Patterson says on his blog ( everettpatterson.com), "The main goal of this illustration was to pack as many clever biblical references into the scene as possible. I won't list every one (there are at least a dozen), but a few that I'm proudest of are: the verse from the prophet Ezekiel in the graffiti on the phone kiosk, the way the "Save More!" behind Mary's head looks kinda like "Ave Maria!," and the two ads for "Glad" and "Tide" on the newspaper (get it?)."

But more important is the subtext of the illustration: that Jesus is born among us on the margins of our society - among humble, even homeless, people. Patterson writes, "for this image, I chose very, very wide vanishing points. The result is what I occasionally call 'middle-class white people perspective.' Rather than feeling immersed in the scene, the viewer is looking at it as if from across the street or from the warmth and safety of his or her passing car. I have a small hope that this Christmas image will come to mind when we see other 'down and out' people huddling outside of gas stations, reminding us that our Savior's parents (and indeed, Jesus himself) were at one time similarly troubled."

Patterson has granted permission for churches to reproduce the image for one-time, non-commercial use with attribution to the artist.