My birthday was in March. When it came around, my children
came up with a wonderful adventure present. They wished to go with me to a
museum. It was such a lovely idea and one I was so pleased to realize they had
thought of themselves. We had never been to an art museum together, and I do
love a good walk through an art museum. Sadly, time got away from us, and we
had to put off our plans for another day.
Determined, the children nor I gave up on the idea, and this
summer I took some time off to bring our plan to fruition. We planned a special
week of activities in Memphis, and one included a trip to the Brooks.
When we arrived on our designated Wednesday
morning, we were delighted to find that the entire day was dedicated to
children’s exploration of the museum. A special art deco popsicle project had been planned, and a scavenger hunt throughout the museum designed.
It was a wonderful, wonderful morning. The scavenger hunt kept the children
engaged throughout our entire visit, and we managed to visit every single
gallery.
This certainly will be a memory that stays with me, but
there is a stand out moment that continues to come back to me quite regularly.
After studying an inlaid desk featured in the red gallery and making faces at
one another in the concave mirror featured above it, we rounded the corner to
the next gallery. Suddenly, I was winded by the sight of the enormous oil
painting in our path. Time stopped, my heart raced, my eyes zoomed in to the
piece of work, and I had to grab my children by their shoulders to steady
myself. Truly in front of us stood a portrait of heaven. There were angels
turned towards one another smiling in delight as they all acknowledged a bright
light coming from the darkness below. While their heavenly colors were in happy
shades of blue, pink, peach, and purple of the sunrise or sunset, they looked through the clouds down
towards a pure darkness. What they saw brought them unbounded joy. A great
light was breaking through the darkness and reaching towards heaven. “Aha,”
they seemed to say, “See there she is…there he is…breaking through the darkness
and shedding light in the world. We knew she could. We knew he could. How
wonderful. How wonderful indeed.”
My children were ready to go on to the next scavenger hunt
item and didn’t recognize my pause. Once words could come to me though I
managed to hold my babies close and say, “Oh, look children, isn’t it
beautiful. Someone has captured the joy of heaven when we share love and light
in the world.” I gazed lovingly at the painting, and my children humored me.
Then we were off again.
Love bursts of light in our hearts are powerful but can seem
fleeting as well as daunting to act upon. It is hard to stay in that moment for long, but the love lingers. The
light reminds us, it is more powerful than darkness and needs only be turned on
or shown the way.
This painting, this moment still shines a path for me
through the darkness. May it be the love and light you need today, too.
With love and light,
LT
