Light of the World

On Sunday a lady in our church leaned forward and tapped me on the shoulder. She handed me a little booklet with this picture on the front and said she felt like she was meant to give it to me. She told me her mother had a picture of it, so she always thinks of mothers with this image and saw me with my three children running around and thought I would like it. I do like it and I found it so inspiring reading about it in the booklet. This lady didn't know about my exploration of church art and so I thanked her and later explained how inspiring it had been for me.

This picture is called "Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt and was painted in 1853-1854, who was part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. It's a really famous image and yet I haven't encountered it before. It continues to inspire so many people with all it hidden messages which were so popular with the Pre-Raphaelites. There is a great explanation of it here.

One of the reasons I found this so inspiring is the perspective of time, that an artist created something which is continuing to inspire over 150 years later and is being shared online too all over the world, which Holman Hunt could never have dreamed of.