Saint Augustine once said, "We were made for you, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."
This quote has served as a theme for the artwork of Messy Heart Studio, which is the name I gave to my style of art, not really an actual studio, unless you consider a paint table in the corner of my husband's downstairs office a "studio."
I chose the name Messy Heart because although we tend to want a neat and tidy life, with everything in its place and a place for everything, that is not reality. The truth is that even though God created humanity to beautifully reflect his image, man and woman chose to rebel against him. In so doing they brought brokenness, pain, and restlessness into God's perfect creation. Since then we have all been born with an unsatisfied hunger for something more. The good news is that God chose to graciously restore his relationship with us by sending his own son to suffer the penalty of that rebellion. Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world so that we, you and I, along with all those who choose to trust in him above all else could live forever as children of God.
When we believe in him, he sets us free from the bondage of sin. And yet our
brokenness continues to plague us and to fight against our desire to live for his glory, so yes, our hearts remain messy as we learn to trust in him more and more each day. The good news is that he is coming back and when he does he promises to complete the restoration, that we might live forever with him, gloriously renewed once and for all!
