In a quiet moment of personal need, artist Kate Lee created Lift Up Your Hearta piece born from a season of heaviness. Painted in September of the previous year, the work emerged as a visual prayer, expressing her desire to reach out to Christ and embrace the healing and strength found in His Atonement. I needed to reach out, Lee shares, and I imagined Christ not just waiting for me, but reaching up with mebeing my advocate, not only in sin, but also in sorrow. This moment of connection is captured in the figure of Jesus, arm raised upward, inviting viewers into that same sacred space of hope.
The painting portrays more than intercession; it is a declaration of solidarity. Lee describes envisioning Jesus standing beside her, both of them reaching toward the Father in search of peace. He wants that same peace for me, she explains, and Hes there, lifting with me. The simplicity of the compositionthe figure of Christ bathed in soft, ethereal lightechoes the purity of that message: that the Savior walks with us, advocates for us, and longs to share in our healing. Lift Up Your Heart is an offering of comfort, a reminder that we never reach toward heaven alone.
by Kate Lee