Who’s That Smiling Lady?

If I asked you what the most famous painting in all of history is, you might just say the Mona Lisa, the Renaissance work by Leonardo da Vinci.

But you would be wrong.

You'd be right to say so now. The Mona Lisa has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, and the most parodied work of art in the world". But it wasn’t always that way.

Until 1911, the painting was recognized by art historians but not so much by the general public. It wasn’t until it was stolen from the Louvre that year that it came to popular notice. In fact, it was so unnoticed that it took the museum two days before they even recognized it was gone! The theft became a sensation because of the nationalist sentiment of the time, causing a media frenzy over why and who had stolen it. That notice made the painting impossible to fence, so eventually the thief tried to convince an Italian museum to buy it. They turned in the thief, and the painting was returned to France. The speculation and media circus brought the painting to notoriety, and it has been so ever since.

In our world, we erroneously associate fame with importance. If people know about it, it’s good and if they don’t, well it not. Yet that's not true. Some of the most important people never get much due. Some folks bring very little to the table but get lots of attention. The Mona Lisa was just as good a painting before 1911, but no one seemed to care much.

That’s why we need to be less concerned about chasing after worldly attention. It’s fickle and irrelevant. What good is it if the whole world knows who you are but God doesn’t (Luke 13:26)? The short-term fad of fame in this life is worthless in comparison to eternity. The being we need to be seeking attention from is God.

Don’t care so much if the world knows your face. Be very concerned that God does!

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