Now, I don't know if any of you have ever read The Agony and the Ecstacy by Irving Stone, but it's a fictional biography (that's the best way to explain it, I guess) of Michaelangelo. In it, Michaelangelo is sculpting the David, and the Bible verses that Irving really emphasizes are these from 1 Samuel 17:

32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him." 33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

And I know I had never heard that part of the story before. I think it's incredible. It makes me feel invincible and weak at the same time. Can you imagine killing a lion or a bear with your hands!? No wonder David looks like that.
I think David is my favorite sculpture. Not because it's a big naked guy, but because it's amazing. I don't know how many of you have stood at the base of that magnificent piece of marble and tried to imagine forming it with a chisel and hammer, or admired the viens in his arms, or the way his muscles ripple under his stone skin; but I know that it's an experience I want to repeat again and again. Florence may be the dirtiest city in Italy, but it has the most beautiful artwork in the entire world.

I can't get this new side of David off my mind. God did not send just any child into the hands of Goliath, He prepared David carefully over the years. All this is a preparation. But what am I supposed to conquer?

Also, you should check out some pictures of the Pieta while you're at it. Although they keep her behind bullet-proof glass, she still has the power to move you to tears. why are there no more Michaelangelo's?