The Atonement of Jesus Christ defies human description. Because of the Savior, we can rise from the depths of sin, pain, and death. No wound is too deep for Him to heal. No loss is too final for Him to restore.
While we may intellectually understand these truths, it can be difficult to internalize them on a tangible level. What does Christ’s Atonement truly look like in our lives?
Art provides a vehicle for appreciating His atoning power. Like a testimony, a painting can convey spiritual truths in uniquely personal ways that the heart can recognize.
We spoke with Latter-day Saint artist Greg Olsen about how he’s come to understand the Atonement through painting. Learn from Greg how Christ can be a steady presence and symbol of healing, even when our circumstances don’t necessarily change.
Exploring What Christ’s Atonement Looks Like
Despite having a strong testimony of the Savior, Greg says the how-to of accessing His Atonement has sometimes felt abstract in his life.
“I’ve always kind of puzzled over the teaching in the scriptures where Christ says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light,’” he says. “I believe that, but I doubt that there’s a Christian alive who hasn’t questioned that at times. Because earth life doesn’t always feel light and easy. There are so many experiences that come to us because we’re human, and sometimes, I think we question whether that’s a literal statement.”
As Greg pondered this principle, he felt inspired to create a painting exploring how Christ supports us in our heaviest moments. The result was Balm of Gilead, which depicts the Savior gently placing His hands on the shoulders of a discouraged man.
Greg says the man represents all of us in our darkest moments: “It could be grief, it could be depression or discouragement, or it could be doubts about whether there is a God. All of us have our own shadow places that we go in.”
Greg contrasted the somber colors around the man with brighter colors emanating from the Savior. This artistic choice symbolizes how our darkest moments can help us recognize and accept divine light.
“The light in the painting is coming diagonally from the upper-right hand down to the lower-left hand, so there’s a dark side and a light side,” Greg points out. “And I think of Christ as just being with that person. Sometimes, that’s all we can do: have faith that He’s there even when He’s not intervening.”
In the scene, the man holds his head in his left hand, while his right hand rests on a table. “The left side of our brain represents that logical, thinking side, and the right side is more of our heart-centered side,” Greg explains. “Oftentimes, at least for me, much of my suffering comes in the form of my thoughts, or that’s where it originates. Shifting over to that right side—that heart side—helps me find relief.”
The man’s right hand is facing palm down on the table, representing how he may be guarding his heart from accepting support. “I find, symbolically, that’s often how I am,” Greg says. “I need to turn that palm over and receive the help.”
He has come to learn that one of the best ways to receive the Savior’s grace is to seek a higher perspective through prayer. The scene depicts both Christ and the man with their eyes closed, which serves as a reminder to shut out discouraging messages and tune into the Spirit. “The kingdom of heaven is within us, and that’s a place we can always retreat to in order to experience a different way of seeing things,” Greg says. “When we zoom out, our problems sometimes look much smaller.”
The painting’s title draws from a verse in a beloved Latter-day Saint hymn:
“When sore trials came upon you,
Did you think to pray?
When your soul was full of sorrow,
Balm of Gilead did you borrow
At the gates of day?”
The idea of a soothing balm reminded Greg of his experiences tending to cows on his grandfather’s farm. “Part of that job was using something called ‘Bag Balm,’” Greg says. “It was a healing salve that we would put on the cow’s udder every time after we milked it—especially if they had a calf that was nursing, because the mother would get chapped and sore.”
He emphasizes that applying the salve wasn’t a one-time thing but something he consistently incorporated when milking the cows each day. Similarly, Greg believes that Christ heals us over time.
“Sometimes, experiencing the Atonement isn’t an instantaneous thing; it’s something that evolves over time,” he says. “It takes time to heal our wounds, to be completely converted, to experience a change of heart, or to go through and come out the other side of a very difficult time in our lives. But He’s there with us along every step of the way. Time is, I think, one of the amazing agents that He works with to heal all wounds.”
The kingdom of heaven is within us, and that’s a place we can always retreat to
And when it’s difficult to wait on divine timing or find a higher perspective, Greg has found peace in remembering the Savior’s perfect empathy:
“ Even Christ himself on the cross asked, ‘[Father], why hast thou forsaken me?’ I think we all have those experiences. We can find His grace by reminding ourselves we’re not alone and this, too, shall pass. And there’s Somebody there to help us until it does.”
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of LDS Living magazine. The theme for the issue was walking the road to Easter more closely with the Savior.
Renew your hope in Jesus Christ
More articles for you:
▶ How we can fulfill Jesus’s prophecy about the woman of Bethany
▶ With God, we’ll never run out of good ideas—Greg Olsen’s inspiring take on creativity
▶ How one artist captures the Savior’s presence without painting Him
