I know the struggle and the tension you are facing today. You want to create something grand, something that shows the true pain, beauty, and experiences of those around you. 

But often, reality is messy. The Fall of Mankind in the Garden has mangled and marred so much that should be simply joyous and beautiful. Your stories aren’t tied neatly with bows. They don’t end like a Hallmark Christmas movie, with everyone sitting around the fire forgetting problems because they are all in the past. Art deals with the tensions of the already not yet. And the Church needs to feel that tension. 

We need you to be the brave and the bold. We need you to show just how deeply sin has severed what our God created to be good and life-giving. Too often, we pass over that pain and try and pretend that all things have been redeemed. 

But you remind us that this is not so. You remind us that the beautiful world God created is fallen and waiting for the King to come and restore it. 

In the meantime, you do not leave us without hope. While some of us need to be startled by the brokenness to remember that all is not well, we often need hope that the God who is coming back to make all things right has left little signs of His grace all around us. 

You show us the beauty of a mother’s embrace and unexpected strength in the midst of trial. In your words, we see the strength of those who stand against evil and in your brush strokes those who fight against storms and embrace the calm of the sunrise. 

In art, our eyes are opened to a world bigger than our own. You help us step into the shoes of those close to us and those far away and take on their stories as Christ took on ours. In taking on other’s joys and sorrows through your art, you help us truly see and love others. 

But more than that, you help us reflect the image of God in each of us. God is the Creator and He is also the Truth. In art, you exercise the creativity God demonstrated in bringing something out of nothing and showing reality in a startling and stunning way. 

So keep pressing on. Because the Church needs the art of Christian creatives. 

We might fight back, because living in the tension of the brokenness of the world and the future redemption is uncomfortable and, quite frankly, we don’t want to be uncomfortable. 

I know that we’ve stifled you, made you feel like you had to be perpetually happy or kitschy to be really Christian. And you didn’t need that. Because pushing your art is a box limits our view of the world and God’s great grace. 

We don’t just need churchy art, we need deep, beautiful, and true art that is messy and complicated and reflects the messy complicated lives we live and see around us. We need art that confronts our shortcomings and causes us to care for others in new ways. And you, dear artist? You are a crucial part of opening our eyes to the world around us. 

Art reminds us of our humanity and the hope to come. And we need artists like you committed to showing the beauty and truth, in daily life and in an eternal perspective.  

So show us the brokenness around us that we might see the need of God’s redemption. Show us the beauty in common grace that we might rejoice in these tastes of a whole and beautiful world. And never let us forget to wrestle with this tension daily as we rest in God’s promises and join Him in the work of redemption and recreation.

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