How can one find real beauty on Earth? For an artist who was once an atheist, the eyes can only see what is really beautiful through Jesus Christ, and this realisation changed his life forever.
In an interview with CBN News, world-renowned artist Charlie Mackesy, who counts celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Sting among his clients, shared that he knew he had an artistic talent at a very young age.
Mackesy, however, said that despite his talent, he felt something was missing in his life. He did not believe in God during his formative years, his adolescence, until the years when he was beginning to mature.
"I mean, I think I probably knew that I could draw at school. But I think you need a reason to draw," the famous artist told CBN News.
At the age of 25, however, while strolling along London Park, Mackesy had a feeling "that there must be more to this than meets the eye," and these things can only be seen through the help of Jesus Christ.
"Jesus quietly introduced me to a journey into finding people really beautiful, which is how my art really began," the artist said.
"Because I felt inside me he was going, 'Look. How beautiful is that guy sitting on that bench?' And I would have never noticed him before," he added.
From then on, Mackesy placed God and His Word at the centre of his life and became an unlikely evangelist.
Being a free-spirited artist, however, Mackesy can be quite unorthodox with his teachings. In one of his speaking engagements, he shared how he heard a gospel song for the first time at a music festival while he was inside a filthy portable toilet, and ended up crying like a child.
"In the loo. Bawling," he quipped. "Atheist, atheist, bawling."
"I didn't really know what had happened to me, but I was feeling it," he said.
Despite these stories, HTB Church Vicar Nicky Gumbel described Mackesy as one of the "finest" evangelist he has met.
"Charlie appeals to people outside of the church because he's not what they expect. You know, when you have the sort of picture of 'the evangelist,' you don't picture Charlie Mackesy, and I think that's what's so wonderful about him," Gumbel also told CBN News.
"People outside the church, I would rather take them to hear Charlie than anybody else in the U.K," he added.