“The cultivation of belonging,” writes theologian Willie James Jennings, “should be the goal of all education—not just any kind of belonging, but a profoundly creaturely belonging that performs the returning of the creature to the creator.”

One way for us to “perform the returning of the creature to the creator”—in other words, to return ourselves to God—is to create. When we make something beautiful or true, we draw closer to the God whose creative energies sustain us. Indeed, we enter into those very energies.
Another way for us to return ourselves to God is to behold. As we contemplate something beautiful or true, our consciousness joins with that of the artist in a gesture of transcendence.

In these ways, the total art event—making, giving, receiving—is a most profound experience of belonging.
We hope that the works in this year’s collection cultivate such an experience, both for the makers who so courageously share what they have made and for you readers who receive their gifts.