Choose Life, Choose Jesus. 2005.

Back in 2004 I was watching on TV memorial events surrounding the 60thAnniversary of D-Day and as I watched I was struck by the interplay of pattern of the positive and negative shapes that the war graves made. So I sketched some ideas for a picture and the result is what you see.

​The picture is about God’s action to redeem mankind through Jesus, mankind’s choice in accepting or rejecting that action and the consequences of that choice. Two ‘cool’ angels each with jet engines on their wings are challenging the viewer to ‘Choose Life, Choose Jesus’. The underlying structure of the picture is of a cross integrated with a Star of David and a circle, the centres of which are at the centre of the picture. The Star of David signifies Jesus a Jew and the cross the redemption and healing of mankind and the Earth by His death on that cross and His resurrection. Mankind and the Earth are represented by the blue green circle, which is on a diagonal axis. This axis shows God’s dynamism in dealing with the worldwide problem of sin and its effects. The Earth is made up of four parts, the four compass points or the four corners, from the New Testament book of Revelation chapter 7. At the four corners of the picture the Earth is shown split up, standing for a broken mankind and a broken creation, the result of sin. 

​The gravestones, metaphors for doorways to the spiritual dimension, depict landscapes, symbolic for the life lived by that person. The coloured ones show those who have chosen Jesus and have died in Him with the gold colour indicating a spiritual quality to that choice. The monochrome gravestones show the exact reverse. To further emphasize this difference the coloured gravestones are mounted on white card. The top gravestone set in blue indicates the High Cross of the cemetery. The gravestones are set in a sea of red to denote earth and the shed blood of Jesus. To create a feeling of depth within the cemetery, the gravestones recede in height from the bottom to the top of the picture. The cemetery is bounded by a wall shown in black, for mortality and mourning. The entrance gate is at the bottom with a white walkway leading up to the High Cross. 

​The four white pointers extend the cross and redemption throughout history and on into eternity, which is represented by shiny dark blue. The gold discs represent those wise people shining like stars in Paradise who have chosen Jesus and died in Him, the same in number as the coloured gravestones, see the Old Testament book of Daniel chapter 12. The central top disc raised slightly above the others represents Jesus as the bright Morning Star, from the New Testament book of Revelation chapter 22. The black boundary wall also symbolises Hell, a place of no light, of complete darkness and isolation, wherein reside those people, depicted by the silver dots, who have chosen to reject Jesus, the same in number as the monochrome gravestones. There they await the final judgement.