With a marker in one hand and her Bible in the other, Marissa Toms is blending her passion for art with her spiritual journey, creating colorful designs of faith through her daily Bible journaling. As a first-year Campbellsville student and dedicated CU swimmer, she transforms scriptures into stunning illustrations, inviting others to see the verses from her bright perspective.
Toms has an associate’s degree in art from ECTC already under her belt, and is now pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in graphicdesign, complemented by a minor in mass communication with a focus on digital media.
In January, Toms started a new Bible-reading challenge. She bought a completely new Bible, and every day since then she’s readseveral verses and then drawn a detailed illustration on the pages to represent the story or message behind the text. With her worship music on in the background, Toms will sometimes spend up to six hours dedicated to one drawing.
“I bought this Bible in December,” said Toms. “And I was like, I really need to start reading the Bible a little bit more. But the Bible’shard to read and understand sometimes, so I broke it down into different verses, and then I started to draw pictures.”
For Toms, being both an artist and visual learner, Bible journaling helps bring her deeper connection to the passages she’s studying,since it gives her an opportunity to think about how to bring the verses to life.
“It makes me more involved,” said Toms. “It has definitely helped me become a more active reader.”
Toms wants her journey to inspire others. To connect her work with friends and followers, she began documenting her journey on social media.
“On Snapchat, I have a story [documenting] my whole process. It’s completely voluntary– people join it when they want to and theycan leave it when they want to,” said Toms. “It’s super like not in your face, because I hate that.”
In addition to Snapchat, Toms also shares her Bible journaling on two Instagram highlights and shows her designs and the verses that have inspired them.
Being both a full-time college student and an athlete on the CU swim team, Toms had to learn how to balance her time between swimming, academics and journaling.
“I will obviously prioritize school over anything,” said Toms. “Because you can worship the Lord any way you want to and one ofthose ways for me is not only Bible journaling, but it’s also prioritizing my time, [making time for what’s] important to me. Swimcomes after and then Bible journaling.”
Strict prioritizing gives Toms the ability to completely dedicate focus to her art.
“When I’m Bible journaling, don’t talk to me,” she said. “I’m in the zone, I’m drawing. You cannot interrupt my process.”
Nature also plays a big part in Toms’ creative process.
“I love doing it outside, because for me personally, I see God outside more than I do inside,” said Toms. “Everything that He made isoutside. It’s so nice to just spend time like that… but if it’s cold I will spend it in my bed.”
Looking ahead, Toms is excited to continue her journaling.
“Once I finish this whole Bible, I think I’m going to get another one and I’m going to do it again,” said Toms. “It’s just so amazing to see your progress personally as an artist, but also to see how I read the Bible then and how I read it now – how it relates to my life now and how it related then.”
Toms also runs a small business, He First Loved Us, where she incorporates the drawings she’s done on her Bible into graphics that customers can put anywhere.
Her favorite verse is Job 1:9– “He does great and unsearchable things.”
“I love that one,” said Toms. “Because it applies to everybody really. If you’re loving your life or if you’re hating your life, you can think, ‘Oh, He’s got this. He does great things.’”
On her swim team, many of the students come from international backgrounds and hold varying spiritual beliefs. Toms never wants to push her faith onto anyone, but she does look for opportunities to share if friends are open, including sharing with her friend Clara Björkegren, a sophomore on the swim team from Oslo, Norway.
“I would absolutely say that my perspective on faith has changed after I met Marissa,” said Björkegren. “The way she is so open-minded and able to explain how her faith works and how that impacts her is so inspiring to me. She has been so respectful, eventhough she knows that I am not religious, and she is trying to explain to me how her faith is helping her in life and that those values could also help me even though I’m not Christian. She is just making sure that we are trying our best to be kind to ourselves andothers, and this is something that I truly love about her.”
Björkegren, who is not religious, said she’s enjoyed watching Toms’ passion for Bible journaling.
“I have learned that religion can be much more ‘colorful’ and not as boring as I thought,” Björkegren said.
Beyond her artwork, Toms’ warmth as a supportive friend is very touching to her teammates.
“She finds a way to make people feel seen and valued,” said Björkegren. “Being away from home is hard for a lot of internationals,but since she includes us in her family, it feels almost like being with your own… Although she has a lot to deal with during the day, she will always make time to come by my room to ask me how my day or practice was, and this lights up my day.”
Toms’ supportive nature resonates not only with her friends, but also with her coaches, who recognize her positive impact on the swim team dynamic.
“Marissa’s use of her social media account creates opportunities for conversations with her teammates and others in a special way,” said Coach Casey Bradstreet and Coach Lizandra Crewe-Brown during recent email interview. “She also has chosen faith-basedmusic to add to our team playlist. Her faith expression matches her personality, and we are grateful to have her in our program and be able to support her as she develops her outward expression of faith.”
Her coaches describe Toms as “a firecracker” and they said she’s passionate, outgoing and content in who she is.
“She’s full of life all the time,” they said.
Although still new to the team, her desire to connect with her teammates is clear.
“Marissa hasn’t had enough time to grow into a mentor role yet. However, it is very evident that her desire is to connect with, supportand celebrate her teammates to the best of her ability,” her coaches said.
Toms said her biggest takeaway for people who are not religious is to have an open mind.
“That’s another reason why I did Bible journaling – there are a lot of people that were like me who were lukewarm [in their faith],totally not into it or they literally are just not religious at all,” she said. “Have an open mind about it. [Faith] makes you see people and the world very differently. It really does change your life.”
