image 24.
thought.
can you draw?
how 'bout sing?
can you dance?
can you act in plays?
if i were to go and visit a kindergarten class and ask them those four questions, i would bet that every hand would go up for each question. you, on the other hand, probably would claim ability in one, maybe two of those areas.*
somehow, as we get older, we lose our sense of wonder... we lose our imagination and we seem to feel like we are lacking in creativity. perhaps we could blame this on the system... a system that has not given us the freedom to learn in a variety of ways... but regardless, the older we get, the more inhibited we become. we lose that inventive nature that is, i believe, a part of our DNA.
i've always thought of myself as a creative-type... i often desire and aim to 'think outside the box' but i am still bound by that imaginary 'box'... it is even hard for me to think beyond the quote-unquote "box". i've had conversations with peers whop think they have zero creative ability at all. i do not believe this to be true for anyone.
the system confines us at times. our way of life confines us.
have you made a playlist? taken a different route to work? cooked a meal? written in a journal? taken a photo? we have opportunities to 'be creative' day in and day out - but do we take advantage of those opportunities to use our imaginations? we have forgotten the freedom that comes when an imagination loosed.
recently, i watched the Coldplay video for the song Strawberry Swing and my mind was set free. i entered a world of an imagination explosion. [watch it here]
i was reminded that life is bigger... so much bigger than what i make of it. it is too easy and comfortable to compartmentalize life... keeping things nice and neat inside the box. but there i no freedom in that box!
i remember in college my Christian Theology professor told us to draw a picture of God. so i drew God... he had long hair... strong muscles. a beard. infinity logo on his chest. a cape. and he was holding the world on his finger, like a basketball player spins a basketball. (see below)
the professor told me my picture was wrong. he had no imagination. he couldn't think of God outside of his box, i suppose.
God can not be contained. and i don't believe he wants us to be bound by anything, either.
Perhaps that is why Jesus enjoyed the company of children. because the got it. they were free. they saw a bigger picture... an unending landscape of which to paint or draw or act or sing... to create and imagine. they were joyous. they loved the life God had given them.
Picasso once said "all children are artists."
Children are imaginative. isn't it time you recapture some of that? imagine. create. live free. see the beauty of God in full.
scriptures.
16"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him.
"Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read,
" 'From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise'?
~Matthew 21:16
14Jesus said: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
~Mark 10:14
*from the books All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten by R. Fulghum and Awaken Your Creativity by Les Christie
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