– Melissa Jacie Thomsen
Melissa Thomsen is a northeastern woman with a mission to share God’s truth through inspirational and interpretive works of art.
Residing in a pleasant northeastern Ohio city, she is surrounded by the beauty and peacefulness of nature and an ever-changing sky. She believes in the importance and life-giving power of the Word of God and desires to draw hearts closer to Jesus Christ and God the Father through her work.
To my dear friends who long for the “basic English version” of this letter and are curious about my background …I am Christian woman who loves God and His Word. I wince over the netting that has encapsulated the Christian world called “denominations”, but if you must know, I’m Evangelical. The title really isn’t super important to me. Ultimately, what God knows and the Bible says, is what I believe when it comes to doctrine. (I think …that many of us could do ourselves a lot of good by focusing on loving God and loving others before digging too deep into the world of doctrine. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve swum in those waters and still do, but I’ve also come to realize that they can be dangerous waters for the soul.) I live in a small historical town of Ohio and work part time at a doctor’s office as well as occasionally assisting in my family’s discipleship ministries. Art is something I’ve enjoyed since a young age! I’ve worked in multiple mediums as well as mentored and taught other artists. I believe in the power that God’s Word holds and hope to bring that power into my art.
Can I write to you as such? How many of us tumble through the heartbeats of life and miss the lifelong sagas breathing right next to us. We are all walking a world made by a Creator and stained by the created’s sin. And thus, we are connected–even when unknown to each other’s hearts.
So let me call you friend.
It is impossible to capsule-ize who we are in one or more black and white paragraphs. Paragraphs that are somehow bestowed with the magnitude of a life.
We are transient, growing human beings—tumbling through a world of question-marks, contradictions and mysteries.
To wrap one human soul into an envelope of words is impossible. It is only touchable.
And so, let us then, meet with mutual understanding. What you read here will only provide you with a brief melody of my life …not the fully orchestrated finale that our Creator is still yet in the process of composing and conducting.
My life began in the wide land of Iowa, threaded through Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and back to Ohio where I now live, love and breathe. It’s a beautiful place …a small historical town, connected to a portion of history that fascinated me as a young girl into adulthood. Something about the Underground Railroad drew me into a golden thread that God was growing in my spirit from a young age.
Life has been a mixture of blissful joy, cultivated blessing, unrelenting hope and troubling pain. It was never promised to us that we would flicker through every heart throb without trouble. But Words of life continue to breathe certainty to my heart of that which will always be: “I am with you.” Four words that mean the world to me …in fact, they mean life.
Thirty-one years may seem like but a gasp for some, to others I will look the epitome of aged. Is it possible to live this long without regrets threaded tightly amongst the beautiful parts of life? Those unreturned gestures of love, the unappreciated moments of care and the missed opportunities to bless that is afforded one on every side. I live with those regrets. I breathe in the imperfect world of reality–the fragility of my own failings and choices. And I continue to find myself humbled by that which I once judged. Life is imperfect, and yet, like a perplexing start of a painting, I know that even in all my mistakes and imperfections, the Artist of my soul can bring great beauty. A messy canvas does not have to mean a failed painting …it can simply be the beginning of something beautiful to come.
For that is what an artist does.
We can move chaos and scattered fragments into a landscape of breathtaking beauty. We can see the life in a land of scars. And we can see the light in a land of darkness.
Have you ever seen a dissembled city of brutality? Felt the heaviness of the atmosphere or noticed the death-like stillness among the broken walls?
Even the most desolate place can speak a melody of hope. God is an Artist and like Him, and through Him, we can hear the sparks of life–see the possibilities of hope–and have faith for the opportunities of change.
The world itself began in darkness. God’s Spirit hovered over the deep. He took what was empty and open …and made something beautiful. He saw the possibilities and leaned in. So too, artists can see beyond. They can see the possibilities in the gray, the downtrodden and the hopeless. And can believe for better things.
And in the heartbeats of sorrow, joy, hope and pain …I live.
An artist.
Called to create. Called to hope. Called to speak.
