King David

I've been thinking about King David since I saw the statue yesterday.

He's been my favorite man from the Bible for awhile now, mostly because he did everything wrong. Completely everything? Cheated, lied, had someone murdered, all of it. But he was still called 'A man after God's own heart'.

I know Michelangelo carved him with a sling in his hand because of the very famous David & Goliath story, and supposedly its supposed to be a 14 year old version of him,  (um.... a 18ft tall 14 year old) but I'm also secretly hoping he chose to carve King David perfectly because of how imperfect he actually was. Maybe he chose King David because he is the epitome of a messed up human being, but through the love of God, he was still able to overcome all his mistakes and accept forgiveness when he asked for it? And through that he eventually become a terribly successful leader, writer and father. A man worth sculpting, even hundreds of years later.

Maybe Michelangelo was thinking about that during the 4 years it took him to carve it out of a 2 ton block of marble.

p.s. I also kinda wonder if King David would be okay with the fact that thousands of people pay to come to see a statue of him every day? I'm not sure if he would be if he were alive to see it, but its still beautiful... this is beside the point :)