SHOULD TEENS PURSUE ART? OR IS IT POINTLESS?

I'll be honest.

For a long time, I thought art was pointless.

Like most kids, I took a few art classes in school. And I remember thinking, Why are we wasting time scribbling colors on a page?

Even the so-called masterpieces—like the Mona Lisa—left me scratching my head. (Confession: I still don’t get it.)

To me, art didn’t seem practical. It didn’t seem valuable.

But years later, I found myself with a different type of brush in my hand—as a painter of houses, cabinets, and woodwork.

And somewhere in those hours of labor, I realized something:

What I was doing wasn’t all that different from the strokes on a canvas.

If you’ve ever worked in a trade, you know that craftsmanship is an art.

One of the purposes of art is to communicate beauty and meaning.

But for followers of Jesus, there’s something even deeper at play: every act of creating is participation in God’s story.

Genesis opens by introducing us to God as a Creator. He forms light, designs nature, shapes life, and then makes us—His image-bearers—to carry on His work.

We were created to create.

Dorothy Sayers put it this way: “The characteristic common to God and man is the desire and ability to make things.”

This is why the very first person in Scripture described as “filled with the Spirit of God” wasn’t a prophet, priest, or king.

It was Bezalel—a craftsman (Exodus 31).

God empowered him to design, carve, and construct the tabernacle, so that God’s glory could be revealed in something beautiful and tangible.

Similarly, when we create—through music, trade work, art, or business—we are not just making “stuff.”

We are imaging the God who made us.

We are reflecting His character in visible ways.

And this is a truth the next generation needs.

Not because we are necessarily short on artists, but because we need more young people who understand that all of life is creative work for the glory of God.

Too often, we undervalue what God values.

The truth?

Whether it’s on a canvas, a construction site, or a spreadsheet—work done with creativity, integrity, and excellence is artful.

Just like God.

My own days of painting houses have passed, but I’ll always be grateful for what God taught me through that brush: that I was made to create like Him.

That we all were.

And maybe that’s the question we should be asking the next generation:

What “brush” will you pick up?