Pirates and meerkats

                 
                     I had always felt life first as a story; and if there is a story there is a story-teller.
                                 G.K. Chesterton


Yesterday I went to a creative workshop run by a talented friend of mine, and spent the evening printing fabric. I cannot paint or draw even if my life depended on it and usually avoid anything like this, but these evenings are great because I get to borrow my friend's creative talents for an evening and actually make something, and it feels good.

I seem to be around a lot of people who are great at creating and making stuff. Maybe it's an east London thing. And it got me thinking about how our talents reflect God's image. When we create we are reflecting something of the original Creator. In an earlier post I shared some of the funny things my kids had said about God. My favourite remains Harry saying that God made people because 'he likes to play that.' And why not? If we are all made in God's image then surely a child with playdough shows us something about God's nature too. On a visit to the zoo at the weekend it occurred to me what fun it must have been to make a meerkat.

Despite my best efforts my children are not crafty. They quite like a bit of painting and sticking boxes together here and there, but what they are both driven to do is to imagine, to pretend.  This morning they were dressed as pirates and simultaneously acting out the three little pigs. And this too reflects their Maker, after all we know Jesus was a master story-teller. The quotation that I opened this post with is from a brilliant writer.  While I am enjoying learning to sew, print etc. I know I will never be great at it. But writing this blog has made me remember how much I used to enjoy writing, and how it really is a creative and pleasing process for me. Yes I admit it, I used to like writing essays at school!

Apparently in Heaven it won't all be sitting around on clouds, there will be work to do. I suspect, I hope, that those talents we have- whether we get to use them now or not- will suddenly be put to full use. I suspect that to work will feel good.