This advent season seems like a good time to share a little about our logo design.
During the time of advent, we’re reminded of our life in the space between: the now and the not yet. God’s kingdom and reign of love, mercy, peace, and justice is not just a future hope; but we can see pieces of the light of this kingdom in the here and now because of the birth of Christ. As Christians, we can engage in the work of God’s kingdom. Through the birth, life, and teaching of Christ, we have a better idea of what the work of God’s Kingdom looks like. The thing Christ talks about most is the Kingdom of heaven/ God. He teaches his followers about how this kingdom is radically different—it’s an upside-down kingdom from what we know/ have known; where the first is last, the servant is the leader, and you give away all you have to gain life.
When we were designing our logo, I wanted to include this image of overlapping circles. One circle representing earth and one heaven. When God became human, these circles overlapped: picture a Venn Diagram (the overlapping part in the middle even looks like a seed!). That overlapping section represents where Christ brings the kingdom of heaven to earth. In Advent season, we’re reminded of what a huge event Christ’s birth was: it marks a beginning to God’s restoration of all of his creation. Humans have failed and messed things up—we’re caring more for ourselves and our gain at the expense of people and the planet: we’re in great need of Emmanuel.
In our logo, the circles are vertical (and we did away with the outline of the bottom circle). The overlapping section in our logo has lines representing rows of crops: demonstrating that we are both literally “tending and keeping” land in a way that produces food both for us and those around us need, but also symbolizing the work of the kingdom of heaven we want to be engaged in at 7th Seed.
In his book, The Sacred Overlap: Learning to Live Faithfully in the Space Between, J.R. Briggs shares images (page 5) showing up in the history of the Church of the embodiment of Christ in this space between:
Through the resurrection of Christ, we have the hope that injustices and failure will be pushed out completely in the future (the circles will completely overlap—all things made new). For now, we engage with God’s peacemaking work—bringing glimpses of his reign of peace and justice into our time of division, pain, destruction, and oppression. This peacemaking work (restoring relationships with God, people, and the rest of creation) is challenging in our time, but no doubt this is work is close to God’s heart. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament we see the steadfast restoring love of God, ultimately demonstrated through the birth of Christ: God coming to dwell amongst us. This is the work we want to be all about at 7th Seed: humbly following the "Prince of Peace" who is “full of Grace AND Truth”.