LifeLine--Nina Cunningham

Nina Cunningham is a graphic artist at a local screen printing company. She is also a fine artist and is involved in a local art gallery in Crawfordsville. She and her husband, Matt, have been married for almost 2 years. Nina and Matt are on our "worship team." Below is a story about one of her paintings titled "LifeLine." See how God uses situations and gifts to produce awareness, healing and encouragement.


Last year, I was involved in a "cardboard skit" at the Agape Praise Fest. This skit is a group testimonial which involves writing something you have been delivered from on one side of a piece of cardboard and writing on the other side how you were delivered. On my particular piece of cardboard, written in magic marker, was the word "ABORTION" in capital letters. On the other side - three words - "I AM FORGIVEN". I was asked to be a part of this skit again at church the next day...

I was absolutely terrified...

I regarded church as my family and wondered if I was ready to reveal this to them. The skit during the festival was much easier to participate in as the crowd was made up of mostly strangers. The church setting hit home. Still, I knew I had to go through with it to obey God and to potentially encourage someone else.

Encouraging someone would be worth the shame that I felt when I held up my cardboard. Holding up this cardboard should have allowed me to feel victory, but yet, I still felt shame and I know now that was not of God. The shame came from me not trusting the fact that God has truly forgiven me! The shame was to man's reaction to my confession. There should have been no shame - because God has taken that shame and nailed it to the cross. He was with me, holding my arms, holding my cardboard, giving me strength...and He would have to once again hold my arms on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning came and after the skit was over, a few women told me that they also had gone through abortions. One woman in particular had never told anyone about it until that moment. God allowed this woman to free herself from her secret by telling another woman! These women were now aware that they were not alone! Not only was it important for them to know that they were not alone in their sin, but that they are never alone if they are in Christ.

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)...For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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 8:38-39)

Since the cardboard testimony skit, God has repeatedly brought the subject of abortion up in my life. As a Christian, I am to minister to others, but I also need to allow God to heal the sorrows of my life before Christ. It is a process of discovering that through Christ I can be free from the chains of my past. When we come to Christ, He begins this process of showing us how to become whole, how to change. Yes, I have suffered consequences from my sins, but my sins have been forgiven.

"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18)

I am continually learning what the fullness of this forgiveness means… To truly be free!

As an artist, through the gifts of creativity God is showing me how He is restoring my life. I have never been one to simply "paint a pretty picture." Since coming to Christ, I have tried to create with intention - to somehow use my art for healing and allow God to work through me to help others. I am also learning how to worship through the process of creating my artwork, as well as sending a message through the final piece.

A year ago, I created a piece of art titled "LifeLine". I did not know when I started creating this piece, what the finished artwork would be. That is always exciting - to create having a simple idea and then having it explode before me. And, what I see is that God had an intention all along. He knew what the final piece would be. He knows what we will be in our finality, as well. It's up to us to allow Him to use us in the process of creating His masterpiece - us.

God is the master artist. He created all things new and with full intention of its final purpose. As an artist, it is challenging to be in a world that is very postmodern - meaning “my intention/truth may not be your intention/truth.” “We may all be the product of a giant’s dream”...and so on. This type of thinking for an artist is one that allows the viewer to dictate what their art is and what it means to the point that the viewer "tells" the story rather than the artist who created it. As a Christian however, I understand that there is an absolute truth, but absolute truth has no place in this postmodern world and that is the caveat. I know the Creator has a specific reason and definition in mind. The viewer can disagree if they want, but it will still be fact. It will still be the truth. Why it was created and what it means can only come from the creator - the creator of a painting or the ultimate Creator of all.



Descriptive elements within the painting "LifeLine:"

The Heart is a stylized representation of a fleshly heart.
(Ezekiel 36:26) 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.
God can take away the hurt and the walls we put up when we keep a sin like abortion locked inside. What is the function of a heart? It controls physical life, pumping life-saving blood - without it we can't survive physically.

Spiritually however, the heart is deceitful!
(Jeremiah 17:9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
During this time of hiding what we have done, we can listen to our deceitful hearts telling us that no one will understand, God could never forgive this sin, I feel so ashamed, I can never tell another...

But it tells us in the Bible that our heart can be changed and it can be made new!
(2 Corinthians 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. We can now begin a new life in Christ Jesus who does not condemn.
(Romans 8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…

The plastic babies represent life and aborted babies.

The plastic flowers as well as the abstractly painted flowers which are intermixed with the babies cover over and hide the ugliness of abortion with the prettiness of falsely promoting the "rights of the mother."

Band-Aids represent themselves. Society has covered over this hurt by changing the very definition of the act of abortion by simply making this a choice rather than show what it truly is - the taking of a human life. A tiny Band-Aid can not mend the hurt of abortion - only Christ can.

There are smashed soda cans which represent a throw away society. Aborted babies thrown away, discarded.

The color or lack of color creates a mundane feeling. Muted colors of browns and creams, the only colors being the flowers and the red cord.

The words "Viable Existence" reside within the heart. The definition: capable of living, growing, developing, working and existing.

The word Life is scattered across the painting. We ask: What is Life? When does it begin? The world view differs from the Christian view, but then again some Christians argue this point. So what does God say about Life?

(Jeremiah 1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart...(Psalm 139:13,16) "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb...your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

The painting LifeLine contains a truth, it is an ugly truth - that abortion is sin. But, it is also a painting of redemption. The red cord literally represents a life-line to save. It can be viewed as an umbilical cord which gives life sustaining nourishment to a baby in the womb. It can be the rope attached to a floatation device thrown to one who is drowning. Or, it can be Christ who is the scarlet thread woven throughout the Bible reaching across the entirety of our sin. Christ, the One who gives life and the One who saves those who are dying.

WE ARE FORGIVEN…