UPDATE:  I still have some tickets available for Saturday evening.  All of the Friday evening tickets have been taken.

Looking out my window I see the sun shining and the Bradford pears and dogwoods blooming. Spring is in the air! With spring comes the Easter season. There are many traditions and opportunities during this special time. Iíd like to take a moment to invite you to one of them.

I have purchased a number of tickets to the Living Gallery presentation "Looking Unto Jesus." These tickets are for the Friday and Saturday evening performances (March 31, 7:30 PM and April 1, 7:30 PM). The program will be presented in the Rodeheaver Auditorium on the campus of Bob Jones University.

I would like to invite my friends here at The Common Voice to this special performance that now draws visitors to Greenville from hours away. If you are interested it attending, please contact me using the feedback form to the right of this column. Unfortunately, I will only be able to give you one or two tickets. I will give out the tickets for as long as my ticket stash remains. Even then, I may go ahead and get some more!

If you have already seen a Living Gallery production, I would appreciate it if you could allow these tickets to go to folks who have not yet experienced it.

What is the Living Gallery? It is pretty hard to explain. It is something you really have to see. However, Iíll try to give you an idea.

Basically, the idea is to take a painting such as you would see on the wall of a art gallery or museum and blow it up to a life size rendering using live models. Now, that seems pretty simple except for the fact that paintings are two-dimensional. In order to obtain this effect, all shadows have to be removed from the three-dimensional creation with the skillful use of stage lighting and costuming. Then the shadows as seen on the canvas must be painted onto the models. This again takes much skill on the part of the make-up artist and costume designers. Finally, when the models take position and the lighting is adjusted just so, you get the effect of the two-dimensional paintings.

The audience approaches the scene very much in the same way you would approach attending a gallery. There is time to site and meditate on the presentation Ė noting both its technique and meaning. Of course, there is also live music and a drama that corresponds with the scenes that appear on the stage. For the Christian, this is a very inspiring production. Yet, even for the non-religious, the event is attractive due to its uniqueness.

Iíll let everyone know when the tickets have all been given out. Let me know as soon as possible if you would like to attend and Iíll set up arrangements to get the tickets to you.

Thank you all for being a part of The Common Voice community. I hope I might get an opportunity to see you at one of the performances.