Do you remember? As a child, the world of make believe was a glorious place where anything was possible, anything you’d seen or heard could become something totally different at your mind’s command, to suit your latest dream or idea. Sticks or rocks or old blankets or brightly colored fall leaves and on and on transformed in an instant into royal treasures or scary, mean ogres or sweet, chocolate cakes, you name it. Endless stories could be made up by innocently disregarding the boundaries of reality. Sandboxes, too, were good for hours and hours of innovative play. Tricycles were replaced by bicycles, hugely expanding horizons. Eventually, they were permitted to be our mode of transportation all the way to Aarup’s! Ah! Walking into that store! The candy on display! The ice cream bars and popsicles! The big glass jars of assorted sweet treats, including red or black licorice (pronounced lick’rish) sticks, up on the tall counter! And the ever-smiling Mrs. Aarup with the funny accent always packaged up our big purchases in small paper bags, folding the tops over twice every time, and sent us on our way.
With adulthood, the terrible news seeped in that make believe was bad in that it was wasteful, unproductive, even dangerous, the stuff of lollygaggers (and you didn’t want to be known as a lollygagger, whatever that was). The freedoms of leisurely days gone by seemed to fade away, replaced by ‘taking up responsibilities.’ So, like for all dreamers equipped with a fertile imagination, flights of fancy were mentioned less and less in the company of ‘serious’ people – and they seemed to be everywhere!
Then, the Gospel was heard with its promises of strength and beauty and power beyond beyond. The serious people accepted it, but with stoicism. The dreamers fell head over heels in love! The serious people sourly developed guidelines for staying within the bounds of possibility and practicality. The dreamers knew that what they’d been given far exceeded even their most exotic youthful creatings. They had stumbled onto a world too good to be true and yet still true. Worship exploded from them in poetry and song and the arts – these souls who had found a freer freedom than anything they’d known before, even in childhood! There was now this Gift that would never get old, never go away, never fail. Their imaginations soared up and up as if on eagles’ wings. And their love affair with Jesus was infectious. Even some of the serious people wanted in on it. And the Father and Jesus and the Spirit smile in contentment. PD
