There is a special museum that few know about, and yet all visit.

It has two paintings only.

They sit side by side, only a few feet apart. One captivates the attention of the masses, its elaborate frame so tantalizing that almost none can even take their eyes off of it and its mesmerizing ‘beauty’. The other ‘appears’ to them as simple and dull, with no frame to mention.

It is the massive frame, ornately adorned with blood-red rubies and shimmering gold that draws all ‘eyes’ and minds. Its intricacies are so established and fine-tuned that they almost seem unreal. One struggles to discover where the frame ends and the painting begins, such so that the painting is not seen for what it is - an illusion of nothingness.

Yet everyone stands hypnotized in front of it, all the lighting in the room strategically pointed at it to ‘bring out its reality’. The viewers mumble amongst themselves and bicker back and forth about its majesty, never fully agreeing on what the painting represents. Some see this and some see that and some see something else, and though fixated upon it, there is a sense of agitation. Still they all remain at its ‘feet’.

Except one.

A little girl of six stood in front of the ‘other’ painting. She was enraptured. A shaft of sunlight crept in through a window and ‘framed’ the piece. She glanced over at the massive frame and saw that it was nothing more than a monstrosity, a sickening assimilation of the world’s offerings.

The little girl looked back at the painting in front of her and felt its simple Beauty, its call to something beyond. She sensed deep within that it held Truth within its simple strokes. She felt Eternity beckoning her.

She looked back once more at all those hypnotized by the grotesque frame and felt compassion. They trembled in front of it, with longing and irritation and fear.

One man at the back of the crowd began to weep, and she could see that he was in much pain. He looked over her way as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. She smiled warmly. He tried to smile back. He then raised his eyes to the painting that she stood in front of.

As she gazed back up into the painting, she soon noticed that the man was standing beside her. He was still crying, but his tears were somehow different. He nodded softly and smiled.

“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for helping me see this.”