One of the very first things we learn (typically at 8-12 months) is object permanence – the understanding that people or objects continue to exist when they are no longer present to our senses. We learn this through countless experiences in which people and objects remove themselves from our presence and then return. Their reappearance assures us. We acquire faith in their existence.
If we are believers, we’ve acquired faith in God in much the same way. As the people and objects in our lives repeatedly appear and withdraw, so does the sense of God’s presence – and just as the child who cries when the parent leaves the room, we are in despair when we feel that God has abandoned us or ceased to exist. Yet God does not withdraw from us. We withdraw or obscure any sense of His presence through a myriad of distractions, electronic and otherwise. Just as the parent never actually leaves the child alone, God remains present for us, even though we’re temporarily unable to see Him. In time, when we can restore our focus or remove the barricades, He “returns” to us; we sense His presence or see the work of His hands. Faith increases.
There are memories and thoughts, often embedded in objects, that provide a measure of relief from the temporary despair of aloneness – cherished verses, photographs, memorabilia of all sorts – even places, sounds, colors, or qualities of light. They all offer us the assurance that our loss is not absolute or final. I would suggest that works of art occasionally function to assist us in a similar way. They can provide a presence to comfort us when the initial experience has withdrawn or provide at least what Robert Witkin (The Intelligence of Feeling) has called a “holding form,” a structure to temporarily maintain the essence of a thought or feeling, when the totality of that thought or feeling is no longer available to us. Art objects capture just a glimpse of a larger body of thought. They are, admittedly, partial and can only point to our experience, but, even with their limitations, they are invaluable.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 ESV