Introduction
In 2018 Laura Young, an art collector, was wandering around and Austin Goodwill store when a marble bust gathering dust on the floor underneath a table caught her eye. Always on the lookout for bargains and overlooked gems, she paid the $34.99 and strapped the head into the backseat of her car. Young had noticed the bust looked very old and started to dig around and find out where it came from.
It wasn’t something you could exactly google up, so over the next couple of years she talked with experts in art history at UT as well as a number of auction houses. She hit paydirt when a consultant for Sotheby’s tagged it as a piece missing for decades from a German museum.
Seems the thrift store find was from around the turn of the first century and is thought to be the Roman commander Drusus Germanicus. Friends, there’s often more than meets the eye, whether it’s invaluable art sitting ignored on a thrift store floor or the ineffable presence of God held in jars of clay. Let’s dig in this week and see what we can find.
Grace and peace, y’all,
John Ray and the teaching team
Text:
Lord’s Prayer
Christ, who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory forever. Amen.
