In the Deepest Night

Christa Issler

Christa Issler. In the Deepest Night, 2022, Watercolor on hot pressed paper, 16 x 20 inches.

In the Deepest Night explores times of longing in our lives. In liturgical church traditions, the importance of recognizing and acknowledging grief receives encouragement of expression during the season of Advent. Advent falls at the beginning of the church calendar, before the birth of Christ. It is a season of longing for salvation that is a microcosm of the parts and seasons of our lives that don’t seem redeemed by Christ. 

Christa Issler’s painting reminds us to acknowledge and embody these appropriate feelings of grief, emptiness, and pain with the full knowledge that God has woven His presence and pattern of eternity into the fabric of the world. In In the Deepest Night, a shoot from the Tree of Jesse visually describes God’s pattern of eternal presence that has existed since the beginning (Isaiah 11:1, John 1:1-2). We may not see God’s presence or may only see it ever so slightly from the corner of our eye, but His presence is, has been, and will always be there. In the Deepest Night reminds the viewer that the body and heart can grieve and long even when the head recognizes and wrestles with the Truths of God.

Additional Information & Resources

• Purchase In the Deepest Night | $650

Christa Issler

Christa Issler received a BA in Studio Art from Biola University and an MA in Art History with a medieval emphasis from the University of California. She decided to become an artist at age four when her parents commissioned her portrait despite financial struggles. Today Issler enjoys integrating art and art history into all aspects of life, as well as designing and landscaping her yard.