QUARANTINE BLOG # 666

February 9, 2022

To borrow a phrase from one of my favorite movies, “I'm not a smart man,” at least when it comes to the world of high priced art.  But I know what an outrageous price is.  

Sotheby’s is having a modern and contemporary art sale on March 2 in London.  Let me start with two pieces that will not, as far as I know, be in the auction.

Your first task is to guess who painted each of these paintings.

Now, let’s not always see the same hands.

Give up?  Well, one of three major paintings to be offered includes a painting from Pablo Picasso called “Buste de Femme Accoudée” (Bust of a Woman Leaning) with a high estimate of $20 million.

And Pablo Picasso painted both “Science and Charity,” and “First Communion.”  He was 15!  What in the world happened to him after he grew up?

👉  For some time I have wanted to do a blog that was largely devoted to humor (as if $20 million of “Bust of a Woman Leaning” is not funny enough).  Thanks to contributions from several readers I have a good collection of smilies and other laughers.  So from a file marked “Philosophy” here is a dozen and a half offerings:

👉  Well after all of that philosophy, and since we haven’t been to the juke box in a long time, let’s relax with a great song from the 70s (and the story of the singer) before we close.

Jim Croce was killed in a small-plane crash in September 1973, the same week that a 45RPM single, the title cut from his studio album I Got a Name was released.  After the delayed release of a song from his previous album in late 1973, “I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song” was chosen as the second single released from his final studio album.

Croce wrote the song in early 1973 when he arrived home and got into a disagreement with his wife, Ingrid.  Instead of arguing with her, she has stated that Croce “went downstairs, and he started to play like he always did when he wrote ... the next morning, he came up early in the morning and sang it to me.”

Ingrid Croce wrote an autobiographical cookbook, Thyme in a Bottle, in which she includes interesting anecdotes about Jim.  She wrote the following about “I’ll Have To Say ‘I Love You’ in a Song”:

One weekend, after being on the road for many months, Jim got a chance to come home to relax with his family.  We settled in to enjoy our time alone together.  Though Jim was expecting company the next day, avoiding confrontation he never told me that we were to be joined by an entire film crew!  The next morning, 15 people from Acorn Productions descended upon our house to record a promotional film of Jim Croce at Home on the Farm.  I prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole film crew and after the group left, I questioned Jim about our finances.  After a year and a half of his working so very hard on the road, we were barely making ends meet, but Jim wouldn’t talk about it.  He hated questions as much as he hated confrontation, especially about money.  He stormed out of our bedroom and went down to the kitchen table to brood.  The next morning he woke me gently by singing his new song. ‘Every time I tried to tell you the words just came out wrong.  So I’ll have to say “I love you” in a song.’

Listen to the song one more time, this time with a different video.

🛐  Today’s close, “An Unexpected Invitation,” is by Greg Laurie.

“As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me and be my disciple,’ Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him” (Mark 2:14 New Living Translation).

Levi, who also was known as Matthew, collected taxes for Rome. Rome was the occupying force in Israel at the time, so people would have thought of Matthew as a traitor. 

Matthew would have been familiar with Jesus, because Jesus was ministering in the region where Matthew was. And being a tax collector, Matthew would have been aware of what was going on around him. We also know that he was a great student of the Scriptures because Old Testament prophecies fill the gospel that bears his name.

Ninety-nine Old Testament references in Matthew show how Jesus was the Messiah. So this was a man who knew the Word of God but chose to rebel against it. Yet there was something that Jesus said and did that softened Matthew’s hardened heart.

Why do people turn away from God in the first place? Why do people turn from the church?

These are interesting questions. I’ve heard people say they lost their faith because a tragedy happened, or they suffered the loss of a loved one, or they saw hypocrisy. But a faith that can’t be tested is a faith that can’t be trusted. That isn’t a real faith.

However, when Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me and be my disciple” (Mark 2:14 NLT), Matthew stood up and followed Him. And in the next verse, the Bible tells us that Matthew “invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners” (verse 15 NLT).

Notice that Jesus never said, “Follow My people.” Rather, He said, “Follow Me.” So put your eyes on Jesus Christ.

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