Charlie McKissy shows God’s love through pictures

On March 13, the Englishman Charlie McCheese was allowed to go on stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. There he received his first Oscar statuette for Best Short Film and in his speech expressed great gratitude.

He won the award at the 95th Academy Awards for the short film “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” based on his popular book of the same name.

The awards are unbelievable and I can’t find the words, to be honest, but the biggest prize was the response of the people to the film and the book, he said himself after the ceremony, According to evangelicalfocus.com

Because the book—which the publisher described as “an everyday philosophical book, a modern parable and a warm story about friendship and community”—has attracted so much interest and many have contacted it for comment.

At the post-Oscars press conference, McCheese spoke of a woman whose grandson quoted the book with the lines: “You’re good the way you are.” MacKese himself said that such stories are “gold to me”.

when book The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse Released in 2019, it quickly became a huge hit with both readers and critics. The book still holds the record for the longest consecutive non-fiction book on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

Today, the book has been translated into 40 languages ​​and has sold more than eight million copies.

But not only the book itself was widely distributed. Even his illustrations and quotes have been spread around the world, on T-shirts, in classrooms, in prisons and hospitals. In 2022, the book has been made into a short film, a movie that won an Academy Award this spring. Just a month earlier, the short had also won a statuette at the BAFTA British Film Award.

– Thanks to the 120 animators who put all their souls into this film, McKeezi said in his acceptance speech during the Oscars.

In addition to being Writer Charlie McCheese is an artist of value and has been described as a “world artist”. His work has been sold to celebrities like Sting and Whoppi Goldberg. One of his greatest works is a bronze statue called “The Return of the Prodigal Son” which represents the return of the prodigal son and is placed in the English church Holy Trinity Brompton, where he himself is a member.

The interest in drawing began from childhood, but in an interview with CBN that visited the artist in his studio, he explained that it took him longer before he started seriously.

– Maybe I can draw at school, but I think you need a reason to draw, McKeezi says in the interview.

He came to find that reason later – in the form of belief in God.

But growing up was far from believing in God. evangelicalfocus.com describes McCheese as previously “vehemently anti-Christian”, although he was always the one asking questions about God and faith.

“We had religious elements at school and I hated it,” McCheese told CBN.

We sang about God, but I did not love God. I didn’t think it was there, but if it was, I wouldn’t love it.

He believed that Christians are those who “pretend to be good and judge people” and that they “believe in an invisible friend of their own making”.

for about 25 years Then Mackesy found his reason for researching his art. Something that became Jesus’ first introduction that he knows so well today.

Although he was still an atheist at the time, he tells how he sat in a garden and felt there must be more to it than meets the eye.

“Jesus introduced me, in silence, to a journey of discovering that people are truly beautiful, which is what made my art begin,” he told CBN.

– I felt inside that he said: “Look, how beautiful is that man sitting on the bench?” And I wouldn’t have noticed it before.

After some time, his life is turned upside down in an unexpected way.

Concurrently with On one visit to a music festival, Makize entered a dirty portable toilet. Suddenly he hears a song being played, the gospel song “Oh Happy Day”. In his final interview, he recounted how the song, through his atheism, brought him to tears.

“There, on ‘Pyjamajan’. Crying. Atheist, atheist, crying,” he said in his speech. “I didn’t really know what happened to me.”

But that toilet-meets-gospel-song moment made him move to New Orleans, where he devoted himself to black gospel and jazz.

– I wanted to tell my friends that there is a soul behind this that is absolutely incredible, so full of life. “Look at these people. Look at what they believe in, and see what he does to them.”

Today is Charlie McKessie the more open and known his faith; It is even key to his entire art. Now he sees his art primarily as a way to introduce God to the people he loves — like his work “Prodigal Daughter,” which he made for a friend who suffers from bipolar disorder.

– If I try to explain with words like: “God loves you” or “You are loved,” it won’t mean anything. I think it was about that Displays through a visual language. Getting pregnant is something she’s always wanted. I said this is God.

The paintings are also an expression of God’s presence in his life. As in the painting “The Angel”, where he himself sits at the piano with an angel looking at him.

– I really wanted to play the piano, but I was really bad. And to me the angel represents the voice of God who said, “I’m with you. I love you. We’ll get there together. I’m going to help you through this. You’re not alone,” Charlie McCheese told CBN.

At home in England He has also become a popular speaker, not least among non-believers. English MP Nicky Gumbel, who is from the same parish as the artist, tells CBN:

Charlie appeals to people outside the church because he’s not what they expect. When you picture an evangelist, you don’t picture Charlie McCheese—and that’s what I think is so great about him. I think he is the best missionary in the UK at the moment. I’d rather let people outside church hear Charlie than anyone else in the UK.

When Charlie hears the pastor’s words, he shakes his head and laughs happily.

– It’s completely absurd!

But part of his popularity may be due to his honesty and unconventional side.

in his speech About the meeting with the gospel song inside his dirty “pajamas” – so dirty that he had to stand on the seat ring – he left no details. Both how God touched him – and some other things.

“While I was going through this, my left foot slipped. And I ended up here, well…”

The rest is for the audience to fill in. As he regroups them, he then hits his main point:

– You are loved. You are loved the way you are. Covered with whatever it is on the outside or the inside.