By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
Bright rays of light with contrasting black silhouettes of the Holy Family drew Catholic Messenger staffers immediately to the winning entry for the 2015 Catholic Messenger Christmas card contest.
The newspaper received 650 entries for this year’s competition, which was open to all kindergarten through sixth-grade students in the Diocese of Davenport.
Lily Isenhour, 11, a sixth-grader at Prince of Peace Catholic School in Clinton, created the winning entry. Lily wasn’t sure what to say when told she won the contest. She asked if her artwork won the fifth- and sixth-grade category or for her school. When told it was the overall winner she said, “Oh, yes!”
To come up with the idea for her card, Lily said she chose Luke 2:1-20 “because I wanted to draw something that had the birth of Jesus. I think the birth of Jesus is interesting because Jesus is a king. He came to save us, and yet he was born in a stable. I also chose this because when I think of Christmas, I think of Mary and Joseph kneeling at the manger of Jesus.”
The artwork shows a silhouette of Mary, Joseph, the infant Jesus and an angel. Lily chose to do a silhouette to emphasize the colors of the rays of light. The rays “show that the light is coming from Jesus.” The colors get lighter the closer they are to Jesus.
Additional, grade-level winning entries are pictured on Page 6 in this week’s Catholic Messenger. Thank you to all who submitted artwork entries.
