On Art & Heaven & Making Mistakes

“I don’t think there are artists in heaven because in heaven you don’t make mistakes”. 

These words were spoken by my 8-year-old daughter last week. The daughter who has a perfectionist streak because she shares the DNA of two perfectionists. 

She spoke them calmly to my husband. She was reflective. Curious. A deep thinker in a tiny body. 

I’ve been thinking about those words all week. 

To be an artist is to make mistakes.

God loves creation. 

There are no mistakes in heaven. 

I don’t know how to reconcile all of these things. 

Yesterday I listened to Krista Tippet interview Denise Pope and Abraham Verghese on her On Being podcast. They were exploring the question, “Who do I want to be in the world?” (Isn’t that just a beautiful question?) It was a conversation about education and medicine and defining success. But it was really about presence and vulnerability and caring for others. 

And it was also about making mistakes, because that’s where progress comes. We all know this. It’s not a new concept.

So I’ve been weaving that question into the comment from my daughter. Who do I want to be in this world? 

I want to be a person who makes mistakes, because I want to be an artist. 

Maybe our art will be perfect in heaven. I believe we’ll still get to create, because I think that is one of God’s primary loves. But I don’t know if we’ll get to make mistakes. I kind of hope we do though. Because making a mess of words is one of the greatest joys I know. And appreciating the way others make a mess of colors and ingredients and notes just makes life better. 

Tim Keller says that creativity is bringing order out of chaos. It’s my favorite definition of creativity. I also know that we sometimes create more chaos before we bring any order out of it. 

There is no perfect art. No perfect writing or painting or cooking or dance. It’s a rare occasion when the sentences are all structured perfectly or the painting can’t be improved or the actor delivers a flawless performance. We’re all just making messes and cleaning them up. Bringing order out of chaos. Inviting others to see the beauty in the process. 

Last week a friend of mine who is a painter asked on Instagram if one of her paintings was finished or still in progress. 70% of people said it was finished. 30% said it was still in progress. I don’t know what she chose to do. But I bet she had fun making mistakes and fixing them. 

If it’s true that there aren’t artists in heaven, and we’ll all just be surrounded by perfectly formed sentences and brush strokes and meals, it’s the first time I’m content with our world as it is. 

Mistakes are part of any artistic process. Words are meant to be rearranged and played with. So are colors and ingredients and notes and rhythms and lines in a script. Artists make messes and slowly, but usually imperfectly, clean them up. 

At the bottom of one of the newsletters I subscribe to the author wrote this note: “Typos left in to prove my humanity”. Not all mistakes need to be fixed for the message of the art to get across. 

I do think there are artists in Heaven. And I hope that maybe God will permit a few mistakes there too.