Dear friends,
Happy Friday the 13th – unless of course you have triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the number 13)! I’m not superstitious, at least I don’t think I am, so I’m not feeling especially unlucky or anxious today. As long as all the black cats mind their own business and stay out of my path, all should be well!
I attended our annual clergy retreat yesterday. The subject was “Speaking of Sorrow” and, it was wonderful. In one of the discussions, the Vermeer painting, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” was mentioned. Someone said that if you looked closely at the piece, there was an image of a window in the earring. At least that’s close to what I heard. We were talking about light. I did a little digging because I really wanted to see what they were talking about. An image search on Google was a little overwhelming – click, click, click – zoom in, zoom in a little more. I couldn’t see a window no matter how much I zoomed in. I must have misheard what was said. Just when I was about to give up, I figured out that maybe zooming was the problem. The closer I got, the less I saw.
Zooming out was where I found a ‘window’ of sorts. The background of the painting is very dark. There are a few small spots that catch the light just so – as if there is a window letting light in. One of those places is on the earring. And then, the more I looked at the picture, the more beautiful things I found that I’d never noticed before.
And so I wonder, where is there light that I’m not noticing? Especially when the background of our times are so dark and hard to see through, where is there light? Am I looking too hard or too close for what I am hoping to see? What might I see if I back up or zoom out? Where is the light coming from? Ah, so many things to think about!
May God, give us eyes to see the light that gives us hope in our times.
Easter blessings and peace,
Karen+
