let there be light

yesterday we checked out the new seattle art museum that was just completed in may. it is leaps and bounds better than the old one. we got a nice surpise at the ticket booth: dads were free for fathers day, and kids under 12 free also, so it was a nice, well spent $13 and 2 hours of our time indoors. away from the rain for a little while. it's big, spacious, modern, with a wide-ranging collection. we thought francis might be bored, but he kept up with us well. there were many impressive pieces, modern and ancient, and in each room we asked him to tell us which one was his favorite; we were all pretty wowed by the giant aborigione dot paintings. there was a room dedicated to renaissance religious paintings of Christ and saints, titled "And the Word was God", which i found refreshing that francis could see something of this nature outside of home and church. he had just had a sunday school lesson that morning on Paul, (which, apparently was an intensely-crammed "summary" lesson, as francis informed us that: Paul used to be Saul, but then God blinded him, and he became Paul and followed God, and then...he got his head cut off.) hmmm. what a nice lesson. i don't think i discovered the fate of the disciples until well into high school, and i found it quite depressing. however, francis said this so matter-of-factly, almost with excitement, that i wonder if it's a tactic to interest boys in the bible.(something greg and i have been working on with him with limited success...) anyways, at the museum, lo and behold! there was a painting of paul in the act of being blinded by Christ, a very vivid painting, with soldiers keeling over and covering their faces, bright light striking from Christ in the sky. and we looked at it awhile. i can't really say what it will do to expose francis to the gothic gory paintings of Christ, quite different from the smiling blond Jesus of his children's bible, but it can't be any worse than his imagination. i can only hope it does him good, give him a broader sense of who and why we are, a mustard seed planted in his little heart...