Wild Imagination
Hebrews 4:12 (NLT) —
‘For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.’
This week these devotionals look at the example children set for us in faith, and ideas and practices we could learn from kids. Today we’re thinking about how we read Scripture.
One of my favourite things about children is their wild imaginations. Children can create whole other worlds, bring inanimate objects to life and transport themselves into stories. When it comes to Bible stories, children seem to easily work out how each character would have been feeling, they gasp at the twists and turns and are amazed at the miracles.
As adults, we can easily lose is the wildness of the stories we read in the Bible. Is it because our imaginations are less vivid, or because we’ve heard and read the stories many times before? Whatever it is, I know I’m guilty of simply reading and moving on, and just accepting matter-of-factly the magnitude and the miraculous of what’s happened.
We, adults, can gloss over the fear the disciples faced in the storm, and the awe (and sheer relief!) as it stopped. We can forget just how big the crowds were that Jesus fed, and the thrill there must have been as basket after basket of seemingly never-ending bread and fish were passed round. Or we may not have ever realised just how wild it would have been to see people dramatically healed!
Today I want to encourage you to read a story in the Bible and imagine you’re reading it for the first time. Take nothing for granted, assume nothing and don’t skip to the ending. Try to imagine how each character would have felt. Allow yourself to be filled with awe and wonder at what you read. Remind yourself that the Word is alive and active!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, bring the Word to life for me today. Fill me with awe and wonder as I read of what you did, and still can, do! Help me to be filled with excitement and amazement as I read and bring me fresh revelation of who you are and what you can do.