Time and time again, when discouraged by the estranged relationship our society has with the material world, that also translates as an indifference towards the arts, I revisit a piece of art: the hymn found in Colossians 1:15-20.
This doxology is a cosmic big band explosion of praise conveying how all of creation culminates in Christ. This praise flows from a revelatory grace that attributes the wisdom of the ages to that of Christ. Failure for artists to understand this theological song can discount Jesus’ own creative work. It is through Christ, God accomplishes his creative and redemptive purposes in and for the world. It is only through the broken and resurrected body of Jesus where we find hope. Hope, not only for our bodies and the material world, but also for our bodies of work made up of, and existing in, the material world. Christ is at work redeeming all things through the cross.
The wisdom of the cross bridges the visible and invisible, heaven and earth, the concrete and concepts. Seen through the cross, our art pronounces our humanness with a heavenly accent that hints of a life beyond our limitations.
Knowing that Jesus holds all things together—past, present, future, seen, and unseen—where, then, are all of our doxologies? If we read and meditate on Colossians 1 we have no excuse for artistic inactivity. Please take the dancing shoes out of the bag, reboot your computer and complete your short story, open the piano bench and take out the unfinished song, and praise him who reconciles all things to God.
--Maria
