Leonardo da Vinci exhibit / Flint River PBC 200th Anniversary Meeting

This past weekend, after attending the 200th anniversary meeting of Flint River PBC, John and I went to the Birmingham Museum of Art to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit: Drawings from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin. We thought this might be our only weekend to see it, and it will be leaving the museum on November 9th. So, we headed to Birmingham after lunch and arrived at the museum around 3:45. The wait was approximately 30 minutes, and the museum was closing at 5:00. The wait went by fairly quickly, although we got behind a couple who preferred to spend the entire time in a public smooch session. My goodness. I could say more on that, but I'll try to refrain myself.

The exhibit itself was absolutely marvelous. It included several of his sketches: a portrait sketch that was probably practice for his Virgin of the Rocks painting; human anatomy sketches, and horse anatomy sketches. The walls and frames were unique, because he drew on both sides of the paper. They had to create a way to show both sides. Also on display was Leonardo's Codex on the Flight of Birds. It was fascinating to see his attention to detail, as well as precision. When using metalpoint to draw, he couldn't erase! Beside each sketch was a little paragraph with some info about it. I found it interesting that several of the sketches were practice for paintings that he began but didn't finish. Everything was VERY small, too. They gave us a magnifying glass when entering the exhibit to aid us. I didn't realize this, but John said even the Mona Lisa is very small, compared to how we typically think of it.

It was a wonderful experience. The drawings have never traveled outside of Italy before in a group, and they are only coming to the U.S. to Birmingham and San Franciso. And one of the nicest parts - it was FREE!

It was a great end to a wonderful Saturday. The meeting was a great blessing. I traveled up to Huntsville on Friday night with Josh & Sam, and I met John there. It had been several years since I had the opportunity to visit at Flint River, and I loved getting to visit with all the sweet people up there, as well as see several other friends from various places. It was a wonderful celebration of a group of people meeting together in the same area for 200 years! As Elder Gene Thomas commented in his church history on Saturday morning, that means Flint River PBC was meeting before Alabama was even a state!! Several ministers were in attendance, and I felt that the common theme in several of the messages was continuing forward and how to ensure the church is there for another 200 years. I particularly enjoyed Elder David Montgomery's message on "Witnessing and Waiting". He used the example of his children on a long trip from Texas to GA and another trip to Maryland. On the way to GA, his son asked him over and over, "Are we there yet?" On the way to Maryland, he managed to wait all the way to NC before stating that he knew that they weren't there yet, but that he sure did hate the car, the seatbelt, etc., and if he didn't get out of that car soon, he thought he would just die. Elder Montgomery responded by saying, "Try playing a game, or taking a nap, or reading, or talking to me and your mom. It won't make the trip any faster, but it will seem to go by faster." He related that to our wait for the Lord to come back. By witnessing, it won't make it get here any sooner, but it will seem to make the time go by faster. He also brought out a lot of other good points about witnessing to others about what we believe.

What a blessing to be able to celebrate 200 years, and if the Lord doesn't return before then, I sure hope future generations can say they are excited to be celebrating 400 years.