Child in the Cold

This is my Christmas picture. I'd had the idea in my mind for over a year; it's inspired by these two poems:

A Child of the Snows

There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,
And never before or again,
When the nights are strong with a darkness long,
And the dark is alive with rain.

Never we know but in sleet and in snow,
The place where the great fires are,
That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth
And the heart of the earth a star.

And at night we win to the ancient inn
Where the child in the frost is furled,
We follow the feet where all souls meet
At the inn at the end of the world.

The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,
For the flame of the sun is flown,
The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,
And a Child comes forth alone.

-G.K. Chesterton

The Burning Babe

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe all burning bright, did in the air appear;
Who, scorched with exceeding heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though His floods would quench His flames with what His tears were fed;
'Alas!' quoth He, 'but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns;
Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals;
The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls;
For which, as now on fire I am, to work them to the good,
So will I melt into a bath, to wash them in my blood.'
With this He vanished out of sight, and swiftly shrunk away.
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

-St. Robert Southwell

This turned out very well I think, though not precisely how I imagined. Coloring the trees took forever. It's all done with Prismacolour and Copic markers except the snow and blood, which are acrylic and watercolour, respectively.
I think this is the best religious picture I've done yet.

A blessed Christmas to everyone! ^_^