In addition to the theme from Ephesians 6:10-20, I wove a few scriptures together to inspire my piece. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" – 2 Corinthians 5:17. After reading this scripture, I envisioned not only the creation of life, but a renewal of a life that was painful, unfulfilling and absent of Christ. Love is a powerful thing. It transforms. It forgives. It deepens. It strengthens. I was also inspired to use this scripture to portray my thoughts: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26. In my painting, the heart of stone is representative of a man’s hardened heart. Regardless of the reasons for this, Christ’s love can soften any heart and the boldness of the white outlines in the heart signifies His light and purity that breaks through the internal darkness we experience. The state of the human’s heart and lungs, both suffocated and limited by their stony exterior becomes transformed by the introduction of the love of God. A person can suffer from brokenness even while their hearts are hardened. Christ’s light and love broke apart the stone walls we put up (our fickle human armor) and transformed it into a heart of flesh- a softened, kind heart fueled by the creator of love and not the hardness of the form of a self-appointed protective mechanism. This aspect of the painting can represent many sides of our personal human experiences. One of which is our futile attempt to protect ourselves from pain by pretending we’re unaffected and thus ‘strong’. The second perspective is a person who has been so deeply hurt by the world, they’ve become ‘stony’, rough, bitter and uncompassionate. The falling stones indicate a continuing of the internal transformation while the bronchus and alveoli in the form of tree branches show the new growth of life in a place that was once infertile and frigid. The birds are there to emphasize the joys and lightness of new life experienced when Christ is allowed to transform our lives. Thus their colours are also correspondingly light blues and yellows mixed with light greens. Above and around the heart there are a variety of flowers and leaves, an indication of the harvest and development that was happening within the individual. Metaphorically, the brightness of the flowers and their nature (being free and overflowing, each different and not constricted or intertwined with weeds), show the freedom in Christ. Abundance of freedom, grace, love and mercy all are represented by these colorful flowers. The old creature has gone where the stones have fallen off and the new creature has replaced its old position, now bearing beauty, fruits, love and life. The reason for the majority of the lungs’ surface being covered in stone, is to depict how a life without the Creator is suffocating just as a hardened heart without love is excruciatingly painful to possess. This contrasts the armor of God described in Ephesians 6:10-20 since instead of protecting ourselves as Gods armor would, we become trapped in that stony self-appointed armor. The real breath we have is found in Jesus as he is the breath of life. Therefore when He entered the picture and caused the renewing of the heart and mind in the painting, everything that wasn’t good had to fall off. Hence, there was a replacement of the weak human armor with love, peace and the armor of God which puts us in a position of newness and victory rather than shame and defeat. The battle described in Ephesians is metaphorically represented in my painting to show the battle or conflict within ourselves, inside our hearts. We’re not only fighting against spiritual forces but often times, we’re at war with ourselves, our thoughts, beliefs and desires. Internally there’s a war raging on, but God’s armor makes us victorious even in the fight against ourselves.

In addition to the theme from Ephesians 6:10-20, I wove a few scriptures together to inspire my piece. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" – 2 Corinthians 5:17. After reading this scripture, I envisioned not only the creation of life, but a renewal of a life that was painful, unfulfilling and absent of Christ. Love is a powerful thing. It transforms. It forgives. It deepens. It strengthens. I was also inspired to use this scripture to portray my thoughts: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26. In my painting, the heart of stone is representative of a man’s hardened heart. Regardless of the reasons for this, Christ’s love can soften any heart and the boldness of the white outlines in the heart signifies His light and purity that breaks through the internal darkness we experience. The state of the human’s heart and lungs, both suffocated and limited by their stony exterior becomes transformed by the introduction of the love of God. A person can suffer from brokenness even while their hearts are hardened. Christ’s light and love broke apart the stone walls we put up (our fickle human armor) and transformed it into a heart of flesh- a softened, kind heart fueled by the creator of love and not the hardness of the form of a self-appointed protective mechanism. This aspect of the painting can represent many sides of our personal human experiences. One of which is our futile attempt to protect ourselves from pain by pretending we’re unaffected and thus ‘strong’. The second perspective is a person who has been so deeply hurt by the world, they’ve become ‘stony’, rough, bitter and uncompassionate. The falling stones indicate a continuing of the internal transformation while the bronchus and alveoli in the form of tree branches show the new growth of life in a place that was once infertile and frigid. The birds are there to emphasize the joys and lightness of new life experienced when Christ is allowed to transform our lives. Thus their colours are also correspondingly light blues and yellows mixed with light greens. Above and around the heart there are a variety of flowers and leaves, an indication of the harvest and development that was happening within the individual. Metaphorically, the brightness of the flowers and their nature (being free and overflowing, each different and not constricted or intertwined with weeds), show the freedom in Christ. Abundance of freedom, grace, love and mercy all are represented by these colorful flowers. The old creature has gone where the stones have fallen off and the new creature has replaced its old position, now bearing beauty, fruits, love and life. The reason for the majority of the lungs’ surface being covered in stone, is to depict how a life without the Creator is suffocating just as a hardened heart without love is excruciatingly painful to possess. This contrasts the armor of God described in Ephesians 6:10-20 since instead of protecting ourselves as Gods armor would, we become trapped in that stony self-appointed armor. The real breath we have is found in Jesus as he is the breath of life. Therefore when He entered the picture and caused the renewing of the heart and mind in the painting, everything that wasn’t good had to fall off. Hence, there was a replacement of the weak human armor with love, peace and the armor of God which puts us in a position of newness and victory rather than shame and defeat. The battle described in Ephesians is metaphorically represented in my painting to show the battle or conflict within ourselves, inside our hearts. We’re not only fighting against spiritual forces but often times, we’re at war with ourselves, our thoughts, beliefs and desires. Internally there’s a war raging on, but God’s armor makes us victorious even in the fight against ourselves.

I want to give credit to God for strengthening and inspiring me to do this piece. It was a personal piece, deeply touched by past experiences and future hopes.