The Process
Redemption : Romans 8
Art As Intercession: The process begins with a blank canvas and prayer. Each painting is different. The process outlined below reflects what went into creating Redemption, based on Romans 8.
It always begins with a time of listening and discerning what I am supposed to paint. For this painting, I am struggling with my heart as a mother, longing to protect my children but feeling helpless to do so. I realize I am often the one who hurts them with words or actions that reveal my fear. Am I willing to trust God with my kids?
Step 1:
I take a piece of charcoal. I write my children’s names on the canvas. From there I begin to think beyond myself to the longings of other mothers, daughters, and women. Heart cries of women I know, some of whose names also go onto the canvas. Then more universal; the women whose children are lost, stolen, aborted, stillborn, miscarried, hungry, or dying of disease. All scrawled onto the canvas in charcoal. The longing for justice from my heart to the heart of God are it becomes a prayer.
Step Two:
As I pause, I am reminded of a verse about longing for things to be set right. I find it in Romans, ” The creation waits in eager expectation…..” and further down in the chapter, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” ( Romans 8:19a, 22). I read through the chapter and see the color red for the redemption of the cross. The canvas is painted red and later green for new life.
Step Three:
A time of waiting for revelation is represented by blue. It continues with a layering on and off of color with a pallet knife.
Step Four:
A photograph comes to mind. The picture is of a mother bear and her cubs on a road. The bears are surprised by a car which drives between the mother and the cubs, separating them at the crossroads. The crossroads become the cross in the painting. I can so relate to that mother bear feeling helpless to protect her children. But then there is the cross.
Step Five:
Deep pain and the heartache of the woman’s heart is received by the cross in values of purple. Some pain more intense than others, but the cross receives it no matter how great or small. I hate the way the painting looks at this stage!
Step Six:
The pain is washed away but not forgotten. Layers of paint go off and on as a symbol of the cross of Christ bearing our pain. I start to feel the relief.
Step Seven:
I wait for the next color and I am drawn to pink as I look at my color charts. I believe it represents the love of God which is so much greater than our pain.
Step Eight:
I go back to the word: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us……neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord ” ( Romans 8: 37, 39). A stroke of gold goes onto the canvas and it is finished. A prayer of redemption for women and children on canvas.