Day 9 – The Hermitage

I’m embarrassed to say that I was not more excited to come in from a sunny, crystal blue day and into the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. We’d already been in over a dozen museums on our trip to Russia so one more seemed like one too many. I did not realize that the corridors of the Hermitage contained some of the most famous works of art and that I could get almost close enough to press my nose against the canvas.

We only had a day to visit so we were taken on a two-hour, whirlwind tour and had the afternoon to revisit our favorite galleries. I was drawn back to the room containing several Rembrandt paintings: The Return of the Prodigal Son and The Crucifixion. For the better part of two hours I stood nearly motionless, breathless really, in front of these two masterpieces as if they were whispering to me stories I thought I already knew. Great groups of people would pass through the two-story room and then disperse leaving me alone with the paintings for minutes at a time. Now, three years later, the memories are flooding back as I read of a similar experience. Henri Nouwen also spent hours in the same room gazing at the prodigal son. I’m once again drawn to this author’s ability to bring such an honest look into the mysteries of a relationship with Christ.