The little carved pomegranates in the desert tabernacle, described carefully by God in Exodus, write without further help a liberating theory of “Christian” art. The little carved fruit are there, apparently, because it’s a dry and spare land and they are fruit. They’re pretty. We are never taught what they “stand for”. They stand for pomegranates, which are beautiful enough, in and of themselves, to adorn God’s tent. There is no further artistic act to connect the carved fruit to God.
It’s easy to read that paragraph but religiously bent artists struggle with it more than they say out loud. But the freeing lightbulb is to see that God likes the pomegranate for itself. He is an aesthete; He looked at things He made and exclaimed over the goodness. It is ok to like things for their qualities alone. Draw what is pretty.
The weirdness comes out most often, for some reason, among Christian singers and especially among their fans. Some rigorist fans fret when Christian singers sing secular songs. As if there is the song, then there needs to be a Christian lyric to connect the music to God. Fools.
God made pomegranates. He doesn’t need a reason to enjoy them, and neither do you.