Always There

By Holly, aged 14 from Farnborough Hill

I chose the theme, children of God as i felt it resonated with me best. I have always been a religious person and have had the belief that God is always there for us, guiding the way. When i was little and found out that not everyone believed in God i was very confused, i had thought everyone believed there was a God watching over us and that everyone prayed when they were scared or worried about something.

This piece was inspired by these beliefs and how God is always there to pray to whether that be as a reassurance that everything will be ok, or a guide telling you what to do next, a call for help or a way to thank God for all that he does. In the piece there is a girl sat in the dark praying while around her, her parents are fighting and through the window there is a war going on, however the girl is unaffected as God is there telling her to stay strong and she will be alright.

I based my painting on the war in ukraine as i had students come to my primary school when the war began and felt so sorry for all the people having to suffer and leave their lives behind to find somewhere new to live.

Under the girl i wrote a verse from Genesis 28 :15 which i thought went with my idea of God always being there for anyone in need.

I believe RE is important to teach people this and to give people the opportunity to learn about how God created the world and how Jesus taught about what God did just like our teachers do for us.

**Note:** I have transcribed the text as it appears in the image, preserving the original spelling, punctuation, and capitalization (e.g. “i” instead of “I”, “ukraine”, “jesus”, and “28 :15”). If you’d like, I can also produce a version with corrected grammar and formatting.