Drew surprised me with a fun outing for Valentine’s Day. He hinted to the fact that he had somewhere fun to take me, but wouldn’t let on to where. I didn’t mind, cause I enjoy surprises.

We ended up going to the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State, where there was a display of seven Tiffany stained glass windows. They had been made for a church in Cincinnati, but the church had been torn down to make way for a highway. So sad, and typical. Parishioners saved the windows and stored them in garages and basements. In Company with Angels, a nonprofit organization, was created to preserve and exhibit them.

So we wander into this museum, and I still have no idea what we’re doing there. I see some stained glass windows, and think how pretty they are. Then Drew tells me the story behind them, and tells me there is some music that was composed with these pieces in mind. He had downloaded the music onto our ipods, and so we were able to listen to them while looking at each piece.

Each piece was an angel from the book of Revelation, representing the seven churches of Asia. We got our earphones in our ears, and I decided I wanted to listen to each piece while standing in front of each one. So, we figured out where to start (Ephesus) and pushed play.

I have to admit… the first two angels were really hard. Each music track was about four to five minutes long. I don’t know that I’ve ever stood in front of any piece of art for that long. Typically, I’ll go through an art exhibit in five to ten minutes. Not that I don’t appreciate it. I just don’t always know how to slow down. I’m so used to zipping through life. As I stood in front of the angel of Ephesus, I found myself thinking about how pretty it was outside and how part of me just wanted to be out in the sunshine, and the other part of my brain was just marveling in the pretty colors of the glass. It was extremely hard to just relax and enjoy the art.

Angel #2 was from Smyrna. Here, we got hung up on trying to figure out the Scripture that was engraved on the bottom. I remarked to Drew that I wish I had brought my Bible. I like to read Scripture in context. So Drew whipped out his handy Palm Pre, where he was the Bible in several translations. He pulled up Revelation chapter 11, and it did not match with what was on the glass. We puzzled over it for a bit, then I realized that it was in Roman numerals, and it meant Revelations chapter TWO. Once we figured that out, it made much more sense.

We moved onto angel #3, Pergamum. During this angel, I was able to relax a bit more and focus on the art that was before me. I started looking at more of the details on the stained glass, and although I was still peeking ahead at the next one, this time it was to compare subtleties of the glass. I began to notice dissonance and chord resolution in the music. I began to wonder how you can get that much color into glass. I grew intrigued by what this angel was holding (a stone) and thought the glass work to achieve the stone was absolutely gorgeous. It was then that I picked up on the fact that each angel was holding a symbol of something in the Scripture.

And so we kept moving. Onto angel #4, Thyatira.

I think this angel was my favorite. The robe that this angel was wearing just captured my attention. At the bottom, toward it’s feet, there was this swirl of colors that was simply amazing. I kept coming back to this part of the window. The rest of it was beautiful, but the colors simply transfixed me. It was simply beautiful.

And moving onto angel #5, Sardis.

I began to notice how each angel had identical wings. There was slight color variations, but the pattern of each set of wings seemed to be indentical.

And angel #6, Philadelphia.

I noticed how some of the angels seemed to have boy faces, and some had girl faces. I wondered what constituted the gender of the angels. Or maybe there was no gender. Maybe it was just my perception that made it seem that way.

Angel #7, Laodicea.

When we had finished viewing and listening, we took some time to journal and I jotted down some thoughts I had. Then I took some time to take some pictures of all of them.

Thanks Babe, for a fun surprise Valentine’s outing.