The Thriving Christian Artist

Jesus The Artisan: Five Creative Principles For A Faithful Life

• Matt Tommey: Artist, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Artist Mentor

Share episode

Send us a text

Before the crowds and miracles, there was a workshop. We dive into the overlooked years of Jesus’ life and uncover five surprising lessons from His time as an artisan—insights that can transform your creative process, your sense of calling, and your daily life in the marketplace.

We explore how formation happens through process: patience, repetition, and the humility to start again. We talk about why learning people—presence, empathy, and emotional intelligence—matters as much as technique. We unpack how beauty trains the soul to see what others miss, and how structure and integrity give our work the strength to carry vision. Then we reframe hiddenness as sacred: most of Jesus’ life was offstage, and those years were not wasted. They built a resilient inner life that could hold a public assignment.

Along the way, we offer practical applications you can use right now. Treat your studio like a sanctuary where worship and craft meet. Ask God what He’s forming in you through your current season. Slow down to see the divine in the ordinary. Practice eye contact, focused listening, and undistracted attention with clients and neighbors. Build simple systems that protect your energy and honor your value. And give yourself permission to enjoy the season you’re in, trusting that quiet faithfulness is not second best—it’s God’s chosen path to strength.

If you’re an artist, maker, or creative professional hungry for clarity, confidence, and spiritual depth, this conversation will help you see your studio as holy ground and your marketplace role as a true ministry. Listen, reflect, and share your favorite insight with us. If this resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and send the episode to a friend who needs courage for their hidden season.

Find out more about The Created to Thrive Foundations Course 

Fuel Your Creative Calling with Weekly Encouragement
Join thousands of Christian artists who are growing in faith, creativity, and purpose.

Subscribe to The Thriving Christian Artist Weekly and receive powerful, faith-filled content every week—designed to encourage your heart, spark your creativity, and equip you to walk boldly in your God-given calling as an artist.

👉 Click here. It’s free. It’s faith-filled. And it’s just for you.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, before Jesus ever preached a single sermon, ever healed the sick or raised the dead, you know what he was doing every day? He was actually a working artisan in the marketplace. I know you're like, I never thought of that. Well, yeah, his dad was an artisan. And so more than likely in the tradition of the day, he grew up doing what his dad did, which was being in his wood shop, his studio every day, and working with clients and working on commissions and building beautiful things and being out in the marketplace. And listen, if that surprises you, good, because it's a really overlooked part of Jesus' life that I believe holds really hidden details for all of us as believers, not only for us as artists, but all of us that are trying to walk in the kingdom every day. And so in this video, I'm going to be showing you five transformational principles that we can learn from Jesus' hidden life, how to apply those to our life today, and actually how they can start changing the way we see the world, we think about our art, and we live out our creative calling in Christ. Hey friend, I'm Matt Tommy. Super glad that you're here with me. Before we get started, make sure to leave me a comment. Let me know who you are, where you're watching from, and if you're an artist, what kind of art that you do so that we can just all continue to support each other. Listen, I've been a believer my whole life, and really up until uh just a few weeks ago when I started thinking about this, I don't know that I'd ever get a given ton of thought to Jesus' hidden life. You know, some theologians call uh the years from 12 to 30 the kind of forgotten years. You know, all that we know is that the Bible says that he grew in stature, you know, and in reputation with with men and God, and and the rest is kind of you know just left out. But when you understand that in those days a boy of Jesus' age would have grown up doing the things that his father was doing, it's a reasonable assumption for us to realize that Jesus was in the home of an artisan. The word there is actually tecton. And so he was in Joseph's home and he was probably following Joseph around in the studio doing the things that that Joseph did and learning from his dad and learning to model that. And, you know, the other day as I was praying about this and just thinking about this whole idea, I was like, wow, how cool is it that the first way that God reveals himself to humanity is as an artist, right? And the, you know, we know then that every other way that that God reveals himself to humanity throughout the Bible, throughout the the biblical narrative, it all flows out of then his creative nature. I just think that's crazy. That's that's incredible, crazy good, right? That everything that God does, the perspective that God has, the way he's communicating with the world is through the nature of his creativity and being an artist. And then when God chose to send his only son to earth to redeem and to reconcile and to restore humanity to him, he chose to put his son in the home of, guess who? An artisan. See, I just think that it's it's too coincidental for us to just overlook this. There, there must be, and I hope to to lay this out for you today, there must be these incredible reasons why God, an artist, chose to put his son in the home of an artist to be formed by an artist to do the thing that the Father had called him to do in his in his work of redemption and reconciliation and restoration. And so that's what we're jumping into today. And I'm just, I'm so excited to get this into you today because again, when you start to understand God as artist and Jesus as artisan and Jesus is as one that is not only created by an artist, but formed on the earth by an artisan father, I just believe it changes everything and gives us huge keys that we can begin to apply to our life. And the first one is this I believe God put Jesus in the home of an artisan because artists understand process, right? You're if you're an artist, I'm an artist, been wondering my whole life. I understand process, right? There's patience and there's repetition and there's trial and error and there's mistakes and there's starting over, and there's the learning curve, and the rhythm and the timing of of the studio and all that. There's a rhythm to this, right? A process to this. And I believe that that God the Father wanted that understanding to be built into the life of Jesus. He wanted Jesus to be shaped by the same creative process that you and I are walking through every day as artists. This is one of the beautiful things, I think, when you understand God's intentionality with this, and then you read in God's word where it talks about that Jesus was tempted in every way. He went through everything that we go through. He can empathize, he's been there, he's walked the walk, he's gone through these things. It's important for us to realize that Jesus understood and lived process. Everything was not just instantaneous. Everything was not just, you know, well, I'm the son of God. I'll just work a miracle right here at 14 years old in the studio. No, God the Father wanted Jesus to learn process from his earthly father. And that just changes everything. I think it it lets us see Jesus as somebody that walks with patience and with understanding and with a calm resolve that, hey, I'm gonna walk this life, even as you understand Jesus walking to the cross, he understood there's a process, there's a flow, and I'm gonna be faithful to that so that I can be responsive to the things that the Father has called me to in my life. Think about in in your life right now, and maybe even in put it in the in the chat in the comments, what part of your process in life or in art, your studio practice, what part of that process is stretching you the most right now in your life? I know for me, it could be patience, it could be, it could be things taking a little bit longer than I'd like, but put those in the comments and let's encourage each other as we continue. Now, the second reason why I believe that God the Father chose an artisan's home for Jesus to be raised in was that artisans understand people, right? If you've ever worked as an artist in the marketplace, I have. We had a gallery and studio for many, many years. And if you're if you've got a workshop, guess what? Everybody wants to come in, right? You're having to meet with people and you get the great ones and the frustrating ones, you get the orders that go great, you get the orders that don't go great. They're having to, you know, dealing with nosy neighbors and hurting families and people just walking in. You're having to deal with all these people at the same time. And I think it's just so important to realize God the Father did not want Jesus shaped in isolation. He wanted him shaped in a place where he can learn empathy and compassion and community and learning to live with real people. And I just think, wow, Jesus knew what it was to live with real people, with real needs, with real challenges. And I think it's one of the reasons why you see Jesus show up with such incredible empathy and nowadays we'd call it emotional intelligence, right? In ministry. He wasn't rushing, he wasn't taken off guard by people's neediness because why? He'd been shaped by that his whole life growing up in an artisan's studio and in an artisan's home. Now, the third reason I think God the Father put Jesus in an artisan's home was that he knew that artisans have an eye for beauty and often beauty that that other people overlook, right? Because they're speeding through life or whatever. But you think about Jesus as he's making things with his dad. He's out there on a building site, he's shaping rocks, he's working in in carpentry or whatever it was that he was doing as an artisan. He had to pay attention to detail. He had to look for beauty, he had to develop an eye maybe for what beauty was within that culture. And I just think, you know, even as Jesus is growing up and we see him, you know, all through the gospels, we know that what Jesus has noticed lilies and sparrows and mustard seeds, and he saw fishermen that got overlooked, and he saw widows and children and orphans and people that were overlooked and unseen and forgotten. Those are the people that Jesus looked at. And that's just not random. I believe that God had him in an artisan's home to learn to be able to see things that other people didn't see. And I love that. I love that that Jesus was always looking, not just from the head, but also from a heart of beauty. The fourth reason is is one that I think is is kind of interesting, especially for somebody that does what I do as far as you know, building and crafting uh my baskets. I've always said that I think what I do artistically is is very architectural. And I think the reason, one of the reasons that God the Father put Jesus in an artisan's home is that he wanted to have him to have an experience with structure and integrity. You know, carpenters and builders, one of the things that they understand is that they got to know how things work together. Carpenters and builders, they got to understand how a foundation is set in and weight and balance and alignment. And so Jesus, when you see him growing up in this and then you see him teaching, he taught in that language, right? Jesus talked about what? Your house has got to be built on a rock. He talked about being the chief cornerstone. He talked about yokes, he talked about wineskins and repair and restoration. So all of these things that he's talking about, these were not just trite sort of metaphors that he was bringing in. These were right out of the lived experience that Jesus learned as the son of an artisan. Now, the fifth reason I think God chose Jesus to be raised in the home of an artisan is this idea of hiddenness. You know, so many times as artists, we long for the stage. We want our life to be recognized. We want to make an impact and influence and that sort of thing. But but listen, Jesus spent, think about it, 90% of his life in a hidden place in the studio, in the workshop, on the job site of an artisan. No celebration, no, no waving crowds, nobody cheering him on, just faithfully doing the thing that the father had sent him to do. Obeying, learning, being teachable, no platform, no spotlight, no ministry title, just obedience and formation and having the presence of God and having the presence of his father and maybe anybody else who was working there. That that was just life. And I think about that verse in Thessalonians. That's what I think about with Jesus. He grew up in this place of hiddenness. And I think number one, it speaks to identity. Jesus had to know who he was before he got about doing the thing that God had called him to do. And number two, I think it gives, it just gives me great peace and comfort to know that when I'm going through a season of hiddenness in my life, and maybe you're going through in one right now, Jesus gets you and understands you and can empathize with you in a way that nobody else can. In fact, in the comments right now, if you're going through a hidden season right now, and that really ministers to you to know that, hey, Jesus didn't live his whole life in the spot life. Jesus didn't live his whole life in accolades and working miracles. Jesus lived 90%, 30 years of his 33, uh 33 years on earth, he lived it hidden. Just put it in the comments if that, does that encourage you? Maybe even share a little bit about the the hidden season that you're going through right now and and what that's doing to your heart, because I guarantee you Jesus felt those same things, and he wants to bring comfort to you right now as you're walking through that same season. So, what does all of this revelation mean to your life? I want to give you five things today that are going to really help you to understand the importance of Jesus growing up in the home of an artist, having not only an artist as a heavenly father, but an artist as a dad and being formed in that space. And the first thing is this your creative process and my creative process as artists, these are the places are places where God is divinely forming us just like he divinely formed Jesus. Jesus was formed as a man, as a person in the place of creativity, in the studio. And so are you. I'm sure you could point right now. In fact, you may want to put in the in the chat times where where God has shown you things about yourself or about your spiritual life in the context of your studio. Well, guess what? That's not uh just a you know, something that's out of the blue. That's that's not just a coincidence. That's on purpose, it's intentional. God is forming you. So your studio space is not just some kind of hobby zone or whatever, it's a discipleship space. It's where God is forming you into the image of Christ and preparing you for every good thing that he has for you. Number two, your marketplace calling is not less important than what you may see as a spiritual calling. In fact, I would say your marketplace calling is a holy spiritual calling. And again, we look to the life of Jesus. Jesus spent most of his life, not up at the church house, not up at the synagogue, you know. Jesus spent most of his life where? In the studio and in the marketplace. And so for you and I as artists, and maybe even if you're not an artist and you're watching this, the place where you're at in the marketplace, where you're in your business every day, where you're maybe for an artist, you know, uh in your studio, in your booth, in your online gallery, at a show, wherever it is, that is not less spiritual. That is exactly intentionally spiritual. In other words, that's where God has placed you and and desires for you to be. Why? So that we can be among people, just like Jesus was and releasing the kingdom. And again, the marketplace is part of where Jesus was formed as the Son of God while he walked the earth. That was an important part of his formation. So don't let anybody, no matter how well-intentioned they may be, tell you that being a working artist or being somebody that's in the marketplace in whatever capacity that might be, don't ever let somebody tell you that that's less spiritual, that the only way you can be spiritual is to be in full-time vocational ministry or to be a missionary or whatever. No, we're on assignment from the Lord, and the Lord places us in the marketplace just like he placed Jesus. All right. Now, number three, you know, we talked about Jesus being an artist, being raised in the home of an artist and being in the studio and that kind of being a hidden season. It's important for you and I to realize this because hidden seasons are where God prepares us for greatness. Those 30 years before Jesus stepped out into public ministry, those were not delayed. Those were not because Jesus had done something wrong. Those were seasons of him being developed. And so I gotta remind you, you're not behind. You're being formed into the image of Christ. You're being developed into the person that God's got for you. And listen, every day that you show up in the studio and you pull out that paintbrush, you pull out those creative tools, you sit down at the potter's wheel, you grab that jeweler's hammer, you write a song, you write a book or a poem, whatever you're doing, and you feel like nobody gets me, I want you to realize they didn't get Jesus either. They didn't see Jesus either for 30 years, but those times were irreplaceable. Those times were so valuable because those were the times where his inner life was being formed so that when he was ready to step out into the thing the Father had for him, he was ready and he was formed internally so he could step out externally. That's just a big, big, big kingdom principle. All right. Number four is this your attention to detail matters and it mirrors the nature of Jesus. You know, every time, you know, maybe, maybe other people get a little, a little frustrated with you for seeing everything, seeing, paying attention to every little texture and every little nuance, every tone, every movement. Listen, I'm horrible to ride down the road with because I'm a natural materials artist. And so I'm driving down the road, I'm I'm looking like this. Why? Because I'm like, oh, did you see that tree? Did you see that piece of driftwood? Or as I'm hiking, man, I'm falling all over stuff because why? I'm looking at the rocks, I'm looking at the flowers, I'm looking at the bark on the trees. But listen, the reason we do that is because we're mirroring the nature of Jesus. We're seeing the world through the creator's eyes. And listen, that's not that's not just your personality, that's just not the way you're wired. That's just not just because you're an artist, that is divine design. And so I just want you to remind yourself that every time you see yourself looking at beauty and looking at the detail, that's not weird. Even though everybody everybody else doesn't do it, it's not weird. It's actually a mirror of the nature of God within you. And that ought to give you a lot of of hope and joy in your life. Number five, the thing that kind of stands out to us for artists and why it matters is that creativity builds confidence for kingdom impact. This is this is so important because you know, a lot of times when we're stepping out on the things that we believe God has for us, we want it to, you know, happen immediately, instant success, that sort of thing. But the creative process that Jesus was formed in and learned to walk in, I believe it gave him confidence to step out in faith to do the things that the Father had sent him to do. And so every project, every experiment, everything that you're having a breakthrough in, everything that's a struggle, all of that is building this sort of uh spiritual muscle memory in you as well, right? That every time you have a breakthrough in faith in the studio, you've now got breakthrough to step out in faith and other things that God's calling you to. And so God is using your creative process and my creative process to grow us into our calling. Now, listen, I want you to think about these five things that I've just said. You know, creativity builds confidence. Uh, number two, your attention to detail mirrors the nature of Jesus. Number three, hidden seasons or where God prepares greatness. Number number two or number four, however you're counting these, uh, your marketplace calling is holy. And and the last one, your creativity is divine formation. Which one of these for you, these revelations of why it matters, which one of these is really hitting your heart today? Put that in the comments. I'd love to see because every one of these is going to hit everybody different. But when you start to understand that the way Jesus was formed in the home of an artist, it wasn't just for his formation, it was for our formation as well, so that we could follow him and allow his life to be a model for our life as we're being developed in the kingdom as artists. So I want to bring this in for a landing. How can we actually apply these principles in our life today so that they make a real difference? Number one, I want to say this treat your studio as a sanctuary, as a as a sacred space. When you go in to your creative space, and I don't care whether it's your basement or a side bedroom or your kitchen table or the porch or the shed or or whatever it may be, maybe you've got a beautiful studio. When you walk in there, you need to realize, Lord, this is a sacred space where I do sacred things to do with my sacred calling. My worship is my creative process, and my creative process is worship. And so, Lord, I invite you into this atmosphere. Listen, if you want to know more about creating with the Holy Spirit, I've got a great video. You can actually check out five ways to start creating your art with God. I'll put the link right here and also in the description so you can get it. But starting to treat your sanctuary, your studio space as a sanctuary is a big, big, big part of beginning to create with Him. All right. Number two, just in terms of application, I would start identifying what God is forming in you. Again, just start looking at your life, looking at the seasons and situations that you've been going through. Maybe there've been some challenges, maybe there have been some awesome aha moments of revelation, but just start asking the Lord. Say, Lord, what are you shaping in me right now through the things that I'm walking through creatively and also in life? And begin to ask the Lord, Lord, how can I cooperate with that in my life so that I'm not resisting the forming that you have me in, but I'm actually cooperating with it. All right. Number three, I would say, and this is for everybody, you know, in our in our Western world of everything being so busy, I would say a big way that you can apply this lesson to your life today is to slow down and to begin to look for and see God in the ordinary. You know, a big part of what we do as artists is uh cultivating and stewarding inspiration in our life. And I don't know if if it's for you, you know, going for a walk, take 10 minutes today, go walk outside wherever you are, look at the trees, look at the grass, the flowers, the bugs, the colors, the shadows, the whatever it is, but be intentional about slowing down and looking for ways that you see God in the mundane. Because listen, I think that's one of the beautiful things I believe Jesus was learning as he was being formed in an artisan's home and as an artisan's studio, is to be able to slow down and see the supernatural in the natural. And listen, if you can begin to train your eyes and allow the the ears of your or your heart, the eyes of your heart to be tuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus' was, all of a sudden you'll start to have a supernatural experience just as you're walking through your day and as you're doing the mundane, main mundane things that that we all do in the studio. Why? Because we're training ourselves to look and listen for the movement of the Holy Spirit. See, we get to see things differently, we get to see life differently when we allow the Holy Spirit to train our eyes to look through his eyes. All right. Now, the last thing, last couple of things I would say is this choose as you're looking for God in the mundane and in the normal, choose to also do that with people, right? Practice presence with people. You know, I'm I'm sure that when Jesus was among people, he was probably one of those people that made you feel like you were the most important person in the room. And you know it's easy to do that. It's easy to do that with eye contact, it's easy to do that with focus. I'm sure that when when Jesus was in the workshop and a client was coming in or he was talking to somebody, take a moment, put the hammer down, put the paintbrush down, look at somebody, talk to them with your clients, with your with your friends, with people that you're having conversations with at shows, practice fully being where you are. Because listen, in those moments when we can intentionally push out distraction and really focus on the person in front of us, that's when the Holy Spirit can give you new eyes and new ears and speak things to you prophetically that you can release to somebody in that moment. And man, that listen, that could change their life forever. You could say one thing to somebody that's in that's you know a catalyst from the Holy Spirit inside of you, and that could bring freedom to them, that could bring joy to them, that could bring breakthrough to them, but it can't happen when you're just distracted all the time. Right? So slowing down, looking for God in the mundane, practicing presence with people. And the last thing I would say is this slow down and let yourself enjoy the season that you're in. Again, I've said it a hundred times on this video, but I'm gonna say it again. Jesus spent 30 years in a hidden season before he was ever doing any kind of public ministry. And whether you're in a in a time of of being out there or whether you're in a season of being formed and still developing your artistic voice and not sure exactly what things are gonna look like, this is not wasted time. It's a season of formation, it's a season of preparation. And so just you gotta you gotta just tell yourself every day, remind yourself, God, thank you that I'm aligning myself with you. And as I'm aligning myself with you, God, I'm being formed and made and prepared for every good thing that you have for me. And listen, what God's got for you later on down the road is no more important than the forming that he's doing within you right now. Because ultimately, this whole thing is not about what we're gonna do for God, but it's about the life that we're living with God as the Holy Spirit is forming us into the image of Christ. So hey, take a moment. Let me know in the in the comments which one of these sort of intentional practices are you gonna begin to focus on this week? How can you be intentional with really allowing the Lord to work this season of formation in your life as an artist? And the last thing I want to do today is pray. I want to just pray that the Holy Spirit would begin to awaken inside of you a new realization of how he's created you, how he's forming you, and all the good things that he has for you. So would you pray with me? Father, thank you for being with my friend right now. Holy Spirit, I thank you that even in this moment that we're in separate locations, God, the same Holy Spirit that's right here with me is right there with my friend. And God, I thank you that by your Holy Spirit, your awakening revelation within us right now to be able to see the way that you allowed Jesus to be formed as a man and as an artisan and as a redeemer and restorer and reconciler. God, thank you that you intentionally set Jesus in an artisan's home to be formed by the very same things that we're being formed with as artists every day. God, I pray that you would continue to lead us and continue to speak to us, Lord. Allow us to walk with purpose and intentionality and grace, especially in seasons that feel like they're taking longer than we'd like, so that we can trust that you who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it. And as we do the work of creativity and artistry, being in the marketplace and being in the studio, God thank you that we are just, we're just walking after our brother Jesus. We're modeling the things that He modeled for us. We're mirroring the life that He lived on this earth, which was by your design. And God, thank you that we get to live the life of artists and his creatives the way that you designed. We thank you for that, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Listen, my friend, I'm always honored that you're here with me every week as I'm releasing content, hopefully, to encourage you and to give you clarity and confidence and freedom in Christ. Please make sure that you subscribe so that you never miss any of the great content that I'm I'm putting out. Also, please check out all the great resources that we've got for you here on the channel, not least of which is our foundations course. God's using it in the lives of hundreds and hundreds of artists all over the world to lay a solid foundation in Christ, overcome a lot of roadblocks that have held them, uh, you know, held them captive in the past from being able to step into all that God's got for them and really get a vision, a clear vision and a clear pathway for everything that God has for them in their creative life as artists in the kingdom. You can find out all about the foundations course, as well as uh all of my best-selling books for artists, our artist mentoring program, our thriving Christian artists newsletter. We got a ton of stuff that's gonna bless your socks off. And it's all right here in the description of this video. So I love you, friend. Thanks so much for being here. Remember, till next time, you were created to thrive. Bye. Hey, my friend, before you go, make sure that you're signed up for the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. It's my free newsletter full of spiritual encouragement, creative inspiration, and practical tips to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Every issue is absolutely free, and it includes the latest podcast episode, featured artist spotlights, a worship song of the week, and again, tons of tips and encouragement and inspiration for you to keep you inspired and encouraged in everything that God's got for you as an artist in the kingdom. You can click the link right here in the show notes to join us, and it's a great way to stay connected. All right, love you. Bye.