"She thought it was the gardener"

Other toy re-creations of art/images: "toy tableaux".

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The way the Easter morning meeting of Mary Magdalene and Jesus plays out in the Gospel of John* is one of my favorite scenes in the Bible, both oddly comical and unutterably tender:
Mary is the first person to see Jesus alive, but she thinks he's the gardener.
She recognizes him when he calls her by her name. 

Red Hair Girl and Squash the Squirrel  (recently resurrected, as it were) ^
recreate the painting below, "Noli Me Tangere" (don't touch me, or, stop holding on to me [on the translation]), by Fra Bartolomeo, Italian, c. 1506, Louvre Museum:

* "Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene"

--John 20:14-18 New International Version (NIV)

14 She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.