He Walks With Me

Title

He Walks With Me

Artist

Jani Freimann

Medium

Painting - Acrylic

Description

I painted six paintings one week of this image. This one was the first painting. I was trying to paint it in one hour. This one took me 1.5 hours. So I painted another and another until I had it done in an hour. Three practice paintings preparing me for the three much larger paintings that I had been asked to do in front of my church with only one hour each to paint them. It turned out quite successful and was a fun experience although I was in agnony with anxiety the weeks before Easter trying to come up with an image that showed how I see Jesus. This image covers a lot about what Jesus does for us if we let Him. Lean on Jesus and He will give you strength. Jesus is there in the time of need. He carries us through storms in life.
This is what I visualize when I read the Footprints poem. The one set of footprints during our hardest times are His.

Each painting I do usually takes a great deal of time per painting, but this was a special case because I was asked to paint live in front of my church with three other artists. One was a very young boy, one was a teenage girl, and one was me. I was the professional artist. No pressure, right? My pastor asked us to paint how we see Jesus on Easter Sunday. A daunting task with only two weeks to figure out how to do it in one hour and be able to repeat it three times.
The one hour paintings were going to be 24 x 36 and I needed to practice. The first idea I had didn't work. It was on a 16 x 20 canvas. I couldn't even tell what it was and I was the one who painted it. It was difficult to not be anxious and stressed and that was the energy I had when I painted that mess. I painted gesso over it to take it back to a clean canvas. Time was passing quickly and I had no other ideas.
The Friday before Easter, Good Friday, I was at my wits end. I plopped backwards onto my bed, closed my eyes and exhaled a prayer, "I need help. I've got nothing."
Instantly, I was given an image with all the instructions on how to do it including the color pallet. It was like a download of instructions from heaven. I opened my eyes and said, "I can do that in an hour." There was no question except what many of us do which is to try to improve on what God gave us like we know what is best.
It was time to do a practice painting. I posed my husband and daughter, photographed them, drew a quick sketch and painted a 9 x 12 painting of Jesus carrying a child just like the image I saw in my download moment except I felt it needed a bit more detail and a bit more umph. I didn't fully trust the image Jesus gave me yet. I wanted my best work to come through and part of me just was convinced it wouldn't be my best work because it was only an hour long painting. It would have to be more of a sketch. Maybe it also just seemed too easily given. A little pride was stuck to it at first.
But this wasn't about me.
It took me an hour and a half to paint my version. Not acceptable. I then submitted fully to the idea that Jesus originally gave me, "Okay, you were right. I will do it your way."
I did another 9x12 as it was in my download (that one sold to a friend). It took exactly one hour. I pulled out a 16 x 20 canvas. The same one I had gessoed and painted the image again to be sure I could do it bigger. It took exactly one hour. Both looked like the image Jesus gave me. What a relief that was.
The next day I prepped the three large canvases, gathered my supplies, including a house paint brush (that was Jesus' idea and a good one too), that I was going to use on the 24 x 36 canvases and took it all to the church. Two tubes of paint (Paynes Grey and Quidacridone Sienna) a house paint brush, canvases, easel, paper towels, and a bucket. Simple is best.
When the pastor saw what I was going to do, he told me about a family that is going to be there on Easter morning. They had lost there two-year-old boy a few weeks earlier. Their boy was shot during a home invasion. I was dumbfounded. Here I was given an image of Jesus carrying a child that I would be painting in front of that family and had no idea. That was incredibly humbling.
I thought painting on stage would be scary, but it was actually fun. I was in complete peace. It helped that the musicians were there too and completely at ease. The very last thing I painted before leaving the stage was the nail hole wound in the bottom of Jesus's foot. The paint shone brightly in that one spot under the stage light like it was a fresh wound. It was finished. Like a signature.
I struggled greatly with whether or not I try to sell the paintings or give them to the church. I eventually chose to give them the three larger ones I did on stage and sell the three smaller ones. (Two of those have sold. The 16x20 is the only one left.) Later, the church gave one of the three paintings to that family who lost their little boy. The other two were auctioned off for the children's ministry. One of the families that got one said, they just had to have the painting because it was their story.
I also heard that an old man who came regularly to that church who claimed to be a devout atheist accepted Jesus that morning. He loved the pastor, enjoyed listening to his preaching and having discussions with him and had been going to the gatherings for quite some time.
When God calls us to do something it is for our growth, of course, but there is usually a much bigger picture that goes way past just us.
I realized sometime in this experience that these paintings depict the Footprints poem pretty well. There is at times only one set of footprints in our lives because that is when Jesus is carrying us.

The verses that I pair this painting with are these:

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold ~ Psalm 18:2

Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken ~ Psalm 52:22

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ~ Matthew 11:28

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June 26th, 2015

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