Amidst life’s chaos and struggles, there is one who maintains composition in our lives. There is one who holds everything altogether (Col. 1:17), whether the order of the universe or the harmony in our souls. Christ is not only a means to a destiny – the savior giving salvation – but he is also the glue that keeps the world and our lives from utterly falling apart. In this piece, my first Steampunk artwork, I used packaging foam to build the structure of the frame. Foam is a non-biodegradable and non-recyclable material that is harmful to the environment. I enjoyed redeeming the foam from being a destructive material to the world to being a material that provides structure. Ironically, the foam is what holds the valuable items of a package in place. The foam was symbolic for the kind of composition Christ offers. The mechanical elements represent the inner-workings of a machine that is unseen. Like Christ, we don’t immediately notice him in the world, but the composition, goodness and order we experience in the world are indications that there is someone at work keeping it altogether. The automatic, ticking secondhand on the bottom right represents Christ’s supremacy over the passing of time. He can give meaning and purpose to the events and experiences we have. Grace, as embodied by Christ, does not only mean saving us from chaos but turning our chaos into a form of cosmos.
Brian See Chan 