Jesus came into the world “Kairos—Just at the Right Time”.
Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
I hope this edition of Parent News finds you walking closely with the God of all grace.
My heart is full of gratitude today as I write for the great success of our inaugural Art Gallery Opening last night at King’s Crossing.
The crowd of over 50 enthusiastic supporters of the arts at CCS were treated to a terrific set of music by LETOUR, our multi-arts performing ensemble led our amazing Creative Arts Director and Director of LETOUR, Hillary Underwood, and a masterful curation and presentation by our Art Teacher, Melinda Gernhardt of a juried exhibition of works by our talented Middle-School artists.
Special shoutouts to the Team that makes these events happen: our Facilities crew under the direction of Robert Wicker and Josh Underwood; our Event Coordinator Anna Nelson; Kelly Allen, my co-host on the Gospel Centered Education Podcast; and our talented Producer and AV guru Vance Rutherford (aka “The Maestro”).
This gifted team of professionals are a joy to work with, and produce amazing results in service to our students and families.
I am also grateful for our Board of Trustees, led by Chuck Adcock, for having the vision and foresight to support the buildout of the King’s Crossing space so that we can hold these unique community events (as well as house our Seniors each day for the majority of their classes).
For those of you who were unable to attend last night’s gala, I’ll share an excerpt of my opening talk, On Beauty.
“Here at CCS we use Biblically-based frameworks to guide our academic program, and one of the most powerful of these what I call the 5 Eternal Questions:
What is True?
What is Good?
What is Real?
What is Personhood?
What is Beautiful?
The answer to all of these questions is ultimately God, since He has the broadest perspective. As the Designer and Creator of all that exists, God has the right to define everything, and He encourages us in our exploration of what those definitions mean in a real world sense as we pursue our calling from Him.
In honor of our Art Gallery opening, I want to briefly consider the Eternal Question, “What is Beautiful?”
There are multiple definitions available to us:
Aesthetics, being the study of beauty, would define it as a certain Symmetry & Emotion, Color & Form, Truth & Clarity, and maybe even Justice & Strong Character.
A deeper definition is found, interestingly enough, in the lineage of the Japanese characters for Beauty, which can be translated as “Great Sheep”. This seemingly odd etymology becomes clearer when we note that they often saw sheep as a symbol for “sacrifice”. Therefore, Beauty was seen as being manifested through great sacrifice or selfless service.
This leads us toward the Christian view of Beauty, which reached it’s pinnacle in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It would not be a stretch to say that the most beautiful thing in the history of the universe was Jesus on the cross, dying as a sinless person/God for our rescue.
Further, it is in the beauty of the Incarnation that we see Christ arriving “Kairos” (just at the right time), to effect the greatest rescue mission ever conceived.
This is the theme of our Art Gallery Opening, and it provided the jumping off place for our musical and visual artists’ inspired pieces.
Through them we are reminded that Jesus miraculously became a human person while remaining fully God, in order to rescue us from the results of our sin.
The Apostle John says it best:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1: 1-2, 14 CSB
One of my favorite artists and fellow Jesus followers is Makoto Fujimura.
In his excellent book of essays entitled “Refractions” (the Gospel Centered Education Podcast* book of the month In December, by the way), he said this:
”I believe that artists can be agents for renewal and healing, that we can play a small part in rebuilding the world.”
And by the Truth of the Word and the power of the Spirit of Christ, these young people are well on their way to doing just that.”
Now may God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them, receive all of the glory as we continue to move step by step toward becoming a truly extraordinary school, for the greater glory of God.
For CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom
*Be sure to tune in to our upcoming GCE podcast episodes as we talk with talented visual artists who are Jesus followers, and they reveal how they praise God through their art.
