Christogram: Atomic Element No. 1 | Orthodox Christian Hoodie / Hooded Sweatshirt

Christ is the fundamental, baseline atomic reality for any believing Christian, from which we construct all other aspects of life. We take this as axiomatic, but in practice, the implications can be counterintuitive.

Christ doesn't “symbolize” the sun; the sun is a physical symbol of the Son of God. The Resurrection doesn't “symbolize” the setting and rising of the sun, but rather the daily cycles of the sun are a constant daily reminder of His Resurrection.  

Since the Incarnation happened through the womb of a human mother, therefore birthgiving and indeed, motherhood itself, is sanctified as having its first and foremost purpose as the means by which God entered the world of humans as a man. Birth itself is symbolic of the Incarnation. 

When we look up, it's not simply to the sky: it's primarily the direction where Christ Ascended. "Up" is symbolic of Christ's throne in the heavens. 

When we look down, it's not simply to the ground and what lies beneath it. "Down" is "down" because Christ descended into the heart of the earth, as He told us He would do when He compared Jonah in the belly of the whale to his descent to Hades.

When we look left, we know this is where the goats will be at His second coming, all those who failed to minister to Himself in our brothers and sisters in need. And when we look right, we know this is where those made blameless by His grace will be, because they ministered to Him in every human body in need. 

When we look in front of us, as it's our God-created nature to do, and when we move in that same direction, it's towards the End of all ends, the Omega of His future coming. And when we look back, it's to disinherit ourselves from the Kingdom of God, as He told us when saying “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62), and as when Lot's wife looked back after being told not to. 

Christ is the Logos, the single principle which, by virtue of His having created the Universe, simultaneously made it ordered and comprehensible to those imbued with His image and likeness. 

(“888” is from ancient Greek numeration for “Ιησούς,” Jesus.)