Keble College and Another Light of the World

After punting Beth and I headed to another area of Oxford to look at Keble College. This College has a different architecture than most of the other colleges, an interesting contrast. We saw inside the chapel, with its towering ceiling and beautiful mosaics depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments high up on the wall. The primary purpose of visiting Keble College was to see another version of the painting The Light of the World by Holman Hunt. We knew about version of the painting because Dr. Bryan Hillis, who attended Keble College when in Oxford, told us that he spent many hours in the little chapel (off the main sanctuary) where this painting is displayed. It was perhaps half the size of the one at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, but still an original and beautiful picture that invites reflection and meditation.

Leaving the chapel we saw students having some fun playing croquet in the quadrangle. The days we were visiting Oxford were when the school year was winding up for most students, thus we saw many young people in their academic attire, or in black suit and ties (going to or coming from year end functions). We also saw many who had been covered with shaving cream, silly string, barbeque sauce, with fake leis around their necks, and other marks of having just been the victim of some student hijinks. The thing that Beth and I both said while in Oxford was “They’re too young to be graduating from University” which really meant “We can’t really remember being that young ourselves.” I suppose for a couple soon to celebrate 25 years of marriage, we shouldn’t be surprised when much of the world seems younger than ourselves.