“ Creativity is    intelligence   having  FUN ” Albert Einstein For the second year in a row, our church offered a special children’s event at Christmas. The kids enjoyed breakfast, music, a Christmas story, and then visited interactive project tables where they could create unique items to give as gifts.  After the kids finished, the volunteers had the opportunity to create something. So what did I do? I headed over to the robot-making table where I made a metallic creature out of a tin can. I glued on nuts, bolts, wires, beads, and buttons to give it a face and a personality.  It is incredibly fun to engage in such creative play! Last year I made a short robot; one with straight antennas and pink eyes. I made her hair out of glue from the glue gun, gave her a jingle bell for a nose, and added sturdy antennas so she could pick up radio signals from outer space…ahhh, the world of imagination! This year I made a large robot by starting wi...

The children’s book, How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen , delights my grandsons as much as it delighted their father when he was a boy. Every time I read this book to a child, I find myself enjoying the silly, fun, and imaginative story. The protagonist is a boy – Tom – who spends most of his time “fooling around” with random items in the mud (such as sticks, crumpled paper and bent nails), playing on high-up things, and working his way inside things (such as barrels in alleys). His aunt, a woman with the wonderfully distinctive name of “Fidget Wonkam-Strong”, considers all such activities to be a monumental waste of time.  Yet all of Tom’s fooling around ultimately serves a greater end. By exploring and experimenting and continually learning about his environment, Tom is prepared to meet a challenge from some rivals: Captain Najork and his hired sportsmen. He beats these foes in a series of games he has never played. With five seasoned adults against one adoles...

Creating – when immersed in spirit – becomes a  pathway  toward a closer connection to God. Sarah Stockton Creativity is God’s gift to each of us.  Using our creativity is our gift back to God. Julia Cameron How do we get close to God? We allow our senses, our minds and our very beings to be immersed in the things of God. Connecting with God cannot be just an analytical pursuit. Otherwise the core of our faith will be facts, rules, and behavior…rather than relationship. And one way to pursue that relationship is through creativity. Creativity that allows us to connect with God, and experience God, in new and different ways.  Our creativity is accessed from our brain’s intuitive center; the “right-brain”. This center connects most to our five senses and also can deeply establish experiences in our hearts which result in great transformation.  If we choose to invite God’s spirit to be with us when creating something, it puts us in a positi...

Creativity is one of God’s attributes. As people made in his image, we humans also are filled with the ability to create. We express our God-given creativity in any number of ways, and not just through the stereo-typical activities – such as “the arts” – that we routinely associate with creative expression. We use and rely on creativity whether we are a building designer, a chef, a manager, or a counselor. Creativity – simply put – is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. And we can use this aspect of our characters to enrich our experience of prayer.  A few years ago, I came across the book  Praying in Color by Sybil Macbeth. She invites people to connect with God and others, using a free-form way of praying that includes drawing. This practice can be helpful for the visual learner, the distractible soul, the word-weary prayer warrior, or the person who needs a fresh way to pray.  Learning to “pray in color” is an approach that can...