These women had watched Christ die. They knew where He was laid. There’s no confusion here, no myth, no “wrong tomb” theory. They came to finish burial customs and to mourn.

And instead, they’re met with something completely unexpected.

The tomb is open. The body is gone.

An angel sits where death was supposed to have the final word.

Look at their reactions. this is what makes this painting hit:

One shields her face, overwhelmed

One leans in, trying to understand what she’s seeing

Another looks frozen between fear and hope

This isn’t celebration yet. This is the moment of realization when everything they thought they knew is breaking apart.

Death was supposed to be the end.

It clearly isn’t.

Bouguereau doesn’t paint chaos or spectacle. He paints something more grounded, the exact second grief collides with resurrection.

Before the preaching.

Before the running.

Before “He is risen” is fully understood.

Just this moment:

The tomb is empty.

The Holy Women at the Tomb — The Holy Women at the Tomb by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I wonder what percentage of dreams, as we get older, become simple mental replays of people who aren’t around anymore.

I find myself relating to Ed Tom dialogue more the older I get.

“And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make afire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up.”

Deep thought of the day, while mowing the back yard. The USSR had Potemkin villages, while we now have advertainment and media. Potemkin villages were used to deceive the outside world into thinking that life was bearable within the USSR.

Our advertainment and media are employed to deceive Americans into believing that our own system is tolerable and different from what it truly is. It’s a Potemkin village to trick those already inside of the system. Worse yet, these methods have the deleterious effect of making everyone external of the system to want to come here.

At least the USSR Potemkin villages had some substance to them, like lumber. However, our modern-day American Potemkin villages would be completely wiped out by an EMP with nothing useful to pick through and in a far worse shape than before.

It seeks to assault the eye. It’s purpose is to offend the senses and profane the natural.