'Tis the Season...

With traveling, I missed Palm Sunday and now I'm realizing that Easter is this weekend. I don't go all overboard with flowers and bunny crafts and stuff like that at all, but I do like to do a few of those things. Also, I think it's important to spend time talking about the meaning of Easter (obviously). Now that we attend a non-denominational church, one that doesn't pay much attention to the church calendar that other Protestant churches do, I realize how much I rely on those calendar times (Lent, Pentacost, Advent, etc.) and how changes in the appearance of the church and the service direct your attention and focus to those times. Last Easter Sunday I was so disappointed at church because nothing was different. No Easter hymns--just the same praise and worship music we had on all the other days. I was definitely let down and did not feel the same sense of joy that I usually feel at church on that day.

Given all of that, when I saw this painting at the Louvre last week, I felt something, but I'm not sure it was joy and wonder. No, that's not true. I did wonder.

*I wondered who this Jesus was.

*I wondered why he was so muscular and why his head was so tiny.

*I wondered by his feet look like he's been wearing flip flops all his life. (see how his big toe is further away from the others?)

*I wondered why he looks like he's walking on a tight rope.

*I wondered what those other two women are whispering about. Maybe they, like I, are wondering how that cloth is staying magically fixed on his hip.

*I wondered why he's carrying a shovel. Did he have to dig his way out of the tomb?

*I wonder if I'm being too irreverent. I mean, I'm talking about a picture of Jesus, not the actual person. But still...

*I wonder what it says about me that I wondered these things. I'll be the first to admit I know very little about art and I understand that knowing more would greatly enhance my ability to understand and appreciate what I see. I also admit that I'm not super interested in doing that--you know, knowing more. The result being--I stand in a breathtaking museum, surrounded by priceless works of art, and wonder why WJHHS (Why Jesus has a shovel).