August 21, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Wednesday, August 21.
On this day, in 1911, a painting was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was missing for two years, and during that time it became world famous. Before the theft, this artwork was relatively unknown outside of art circles. The crime propelled it into the limelight, made the "Mona Lisa" the most celebrated painting in the world.
Leonardo da Vinci finished this portrait of an Italian woman (named Lisa) in 1506. When three Italian workmen hid in a museum closet over-night and then just walked out with it the next morning, the news quickly spread around the globe. There was so much press that the thieves couldn't dare try to sell it until two years later, and even then, it led to their arrest.
Today, the Mona Lisa is worth an estimated one billion dollars. If you visit Paris, you can go to the Louvre and see it. I've never been to Paris, but I did spend an hour one summer afternoon in New York City's Museum of Modern Art gazing at Van Gogh's "Starry Night". Both of these famous paintings are much smaller than you'd expect. But after you get over that surprise, you are completely absorbed by them. The masterpieces draw you in, speak to you, change you a little.
The Bible is, of course, the most famous book in the world, and you don't have to travel to a faraway museum to see it. God's Word is available anywhere and anytime. When you open it - when you open yourself to it - this masterpiece from God draws you in, speaks to you, changes you a lot.
Psalm 119:105 - Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
