The Magpie is a unique offering by a well-loved French Impressionist. What might be surprising to some is that Claude Monet did not just paint water lilies in summer. He painted many aspects of nature in many seasons, including this snowscape named for the little black bird on the stile.

In this work, Monet stayed true to plein air or outdoor painting and to the significance of light in all we see. This composition of an ordinary scene is made extraordinary by its focus on light and shadow. Light infuses this work making it seem to glow from within in varieties of value and tone. With faint, subtle color this painting calls us to a light that changes everything and a reverence for all things made new by it.

Monet used a brush to show us all that can be noticed in a simple place with a couple of buildings, a few trees, a fence and one bird. He added a mystical quality to plain outdoor beauty in a plain, probably unheralded place, on the way to somewhere else. He painted appreciation. He painted wonder. He painted to give thanks for the light of the world. May he be our guide to noticing and to giving thanks in this new year. God is the beauty before us, behind us, to our left and our right, above us, below us and within us. Amen.

In hope and faith,

Sandy Prouty

Minister of Children and Families

Montview Church