Carl Bloch Exhibit (and Date Night Extravaganza!)

A month or so ago, Zac and I had the opportunity to go to this Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. (It was our rare and exciting Date Night!) (edit: I also started writing this post over a month ago. I don't know why it's taken me so long to finish)

Carl Bloch was a Christian artist well-known in Denmark in the late 1800's. Many of his paintings are larger than life altar pieces in Lutheran churches in Denmark, but they were transported from their original locations to BYU for this exhibit (and will be returned afterward). (You can find out more about him here and see more of his artwork here.)

Some of his most famous pieces are from this castle wall:



This last picture is my favorite, mostly because it depicts one of my most favorite bible stories, that of the daughter of Jairus. It's the story of Jairus who comes to Jesus to ask him to heal his sick and dying daughter. By the time He arrives, the daughter has already died and the house messengers tell Jairus to leave Jesus alone because it's too late to help her. Jesus responds by telling them she is not dead, but sleeps. And he very tenderly tells her to arise, taking her by the hand and helping her from the bed.

What I like about this painting is that it shows this moment just before Jesus arrives, a moment perhaps that gets lost in the story. It is of the mother, sitting at her daughter's side, just as her daughter dies. She's been waiting for Jesus to arrive, hoping that He can heal her. The scriptures don't really say how the mother reacted to Jesus coming into the room at this moment, or all of the interaction that then took place. But from other scripture stories, I think we can infer that Jesus is compassionate and understanding of her grief, even though He knows she really has no reason to grieve. I love that.

Anyway - the exhibit was very inspiring and beautiful to me.

It was also neat for me and Zac to be back down on BYU campus. We met as freshman there. They have since torn down the dorms where we lived, but we still went in a couple of the buildings where we would meet to study together or hang out, or whatever, and it amazed me how the buildings still had distinctive smells that I remembered and brought back particular emotions and memories (particularly the Fine Arts building, for some reason, where I also had orchestra rehearsals). Lots of big life events for me and Zac happened while we were students there. We met and dated there. A few yrs later we were there as newlyweds. We had our first baby while students there (well, she was born a month after I graduated - but I had moments of running out of class vomiting from morning sickness in those beloved hallways) haha. About 7 yrs of our total relationship revolve around memories on that campus. So, it was nice to walk around and reminisce a little bit.

After that, we picked up my wedding ring from being sized (also from the exact jewelry store that Zac bought it from in 1997). And we went out to dinner. Hooray!

All in all, quite the date. Especially since we don't get out much. At all.
So, there . . . I've finally finished this blog post. ;)