There is a gentle and quaint Christmas carol in which the shepherds of Bethlehem point out to everyone they meet on their way the marvel they have seen in the manger. "Do you see what I see?" they ask all those gathered in Bethlehem. According to this Christmas carol, this birth, which had taken place under the most plain and ordinary of circumstances, would surely have been overlooked were it not for those shepherds who called it to everyone's attention by exclaiming, "Do you see what I see?"

In my church secretary's office there hangs a modernistic picture composed of a maze of colors and shapes. I know these sophisticated, modern, and abstract pictures are supposed to contain some profound artistic or philosophical message, but I have never been able to figure it out. It just looks lik…