Welcome to another session of our summer journey of art and Scripture at Art Pastor Live. Every Thursday in July and August at 4:00 p.m., I’ve been going live to create a space where you and I can sit together in slowness, read a passage of Scripture together, and create a piece of art from scratch.
Floating Between Life and Heartbreak
Moving Beyond the Lectionary: Colossians 2:6–7
I decided to step away from the Revised Common Lectionary text to focus on two foundational verses that I’ve been meditating on all summer long. I’ve been writing a course for Faith+Lead Academy called Leading Discipleship in Your Context (and teaching an expanded seminary version called Discipleship in the Missional Church at Luther Seminary).
Colossians 2:6–7 (NRSV)
“As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
I illustrated this text earlier in the summer.
There are a few key Greek words in these two short verses that give us amazing visual imagery:
Continue to live your lives in him — The Greek word here is peripateo, which literally means “to walk around.” Discipleship is an active, everyday walking around in the presence of Christ.
Rooted in him — The Greek word is rhizoō, which mean firmly rooted. I love this organic image of a tree firmly planted in the life giving soil.
Built up in him — The word is epoikodomeo, which contains the root oikos (house). It carries a dual meaning: constructing a physical shelter and being inner-strengthened.
Established in the faith — The word for established is bebaioō, which means to make firm, stable, or secure.
The Mistake in My First Drawing
Notice how I illustrated “established in the faith.” I drew… concrete Roman pillars.
I’ve been meditating on that piece for the past six weeks, and I realized: I completely missed it. I got so caught up in the architectural metaphor of being “built up” that I reduced faith to cold, rigid, concrete structures.
So, my goal for this livestream was to completely re-draw that section from scratch—starting from initial pencil sketch to a fully rendered piece—because biblical faith is not a rigid concrete monument.
Step-by-Step: Redrawing “Established in the Faith”
Let’s look at how the artwork unfolds from a basic pencil sketch into a finished piece:
The Cupped Hands (The Sketch and Flats)
Instead of cold Greco-Roman columns, I started sketching two large, gentle human hands cupped together. The process starts with a rough pencil sketch. Then I ink the lines to make a crisp illustration. Then I create a neutral base layer underneath—known in comic book coloring as the flat layer. Back in my early airbrushing days, doing clean color breaks required cutting out sheets of Frisket with an X-Acto blade. Today, digital layers allow us to create clean, rendered illustrations without all the razor blades!
The Humanoids (Secondary Color Theology)
To represent humanity, I brought back my cast of three simplified humanoid figures:
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Roundy (based on a circle)
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Pointy (based on a triangle)
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Blocky (based on a square)
These figures read as human while intentionally bypassing specific race or gender distinctions.
I’m playing with a color theology that I’ve been noodling for a while. In pigment color theory, the primary colors—Red, Yellow, and Blue—are the Trinitarian colors of God. When you mix primary colors together, you get the secondary colors—Orange, Purple, and Green. My three humanoids are painted in secondary colors to reflect the created, diverse beauty of humanity originating from the Divine Trinity:
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Orange (Roundy) — Red + Yellow
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Purple (Pointy) — Red + Blue
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Green (Blocky) — Yellow + Blue
Lettering and Depth
I placed these three secondary-colored humanoids standing securely inside the cupped palms of the hands. Layered beneath them, following the gentle curve and contour of the hands, I hand-lettered the words ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH. Using Procreate’s Multiply and Overlay blending modes with a gouache shading brush, I added deep shadows and warm highlight glows to bring depth and warmth to the scene.
What “Established in the Faith” Really Means
When we replace cold stone pillars with open, cupped hands, the entire theology of Colossians 2:6–7 shifts.
The Greek word for faith in this passage is pistis. Over centuries, Western religion has often twisted “faith” into a mental exercise—an intellectual agreement with a rigid checklist of doctrines. But pistis doesn’t mean intellectual assent; it means trust.
Think of the famous tightrope walker, Charles Blondin, who pushed a wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls. He turned to the cheering crowd and asked, “How many of you believe I can cross with a person in this wheelbarrow?” Everyone raised their hands. Then he asked, “Who is willing to volunteer to get in the wheelbarrow?” Every hand went down!
Pistis isn’t standing on the shore agreeing that the tightrope walker is skillful. Pistis is getting inside the wheelbarrow.
To be “established in the faith” means being secure in your trust. It’s about recognizing whose hands are holding you. You are secure in the covenant faithfulness of God.
The Final Visual Comparison
When I dropped this new rendering back into the master canvas to replace the old concrete pillars, the entire passage breathed new life:
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As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord…
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Continue to walk in him…
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Rooted in him and built up in him…
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Established in the faith… (Held safely in the cupped hands of God)
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Just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
No matter what comes your way this week—whether you are celebrating incredible blessings or walking through difficult medical news and deep uncertainty—you don’t have to carry the universe on your shoulders. You are established, safe, and held in God’s hands.
Join the Community
Did you draw, paint, or journal along with this episode? I would love to see what you created!
Head over to The Art Pastor’s Network. We have an amazing community of creative souls who gather to explore Scripture, share visual art, and walk together in slowness and faith.
Until next time, keep creating, keep breathing, and remember that you are held.
This is my chance to invite you into my studio, talk about the fusion of art and theology, explore spirituality and scripture through visual art, nerd out about the Bible and Visual art, and just hang out with you.
