Beautiful messengers of peace: that is the role of angels and that was what our fifth graders thought when they took a look at a painting entitled “Angels” by artist Chatout donated by a Houston ambassador and public servant. They also get to travel and eat great food . . . Or so kids decided.
Ambassador Edward Djerejian has served our nation as a peacemaker in Syria and Israel. Starting with Kennedy, he served most of our Presidents. He is man of country and not of party. Presidents come and go, but these patriots are the ones who have kept the peace. Read his work and you discover a steady man sent to an unsteady region. He could serve both parties, because he was an American and not a partisan.
The strength of the United States of America is that we bring such men to our nation and then they become not just Americans, but a bulwark for the Republic. If you are discouraged, remember that our diplomats have for generations worked without much attention to keep the peace. If our politicians may not know much, these civil servants know a great deal and they use what they know to help the politicians.
Men like Edward Djerejian keep the peace, negotiate, educate, and when any given job is done, create beauty in some new way. There was a generation where such men were common and could be expected to be civilized. So the painting that now hangs in our Common Room is no surprise, given the man, but not so common given our present times.
The intense colors show the battle for peace on Earth that angels face. They once proclaimed “glory to God in the highest” and “peace on earth” when a baby was born, but in those very lines there is no peace on earth. The artist Chatout goes and attempts to actulize the vision of the angel. He shows the incompletion, the twisting, turning . . .the almost peace, yet too often war of our broken world. We have been given the idea of angels, but the work of such artists is spoilt by devils.
Now every day our students look at this painting and can learn something new. The kindergarten liked the colors and getting to draw angels! I see it and see a mix of darkness and light. Some of the motion in the painting is upward, but not all. There is darkness, fire and light: just like the Middle East. The artist Chatout captures the motion of angels, some looking to God, some ministering to us on the horizontal plane, and a few reaching down to hades.
For centuries Christianity has remained true to herself in the places where she was born: lands like Lebanon and Syria. America has been enriched by those who came from those lands to live here, serve here, and create beauty here. Now in our Common Room, we are given the gift of angels.
Thank you, Mr. Ambassador.
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