During the Summer, Tracie and I meet at her house instead of a local restaurant. School is out, and her living room has been filled with a myriad of toys, strewn throughout the room. To the casual observer it might appear to be a chaotic mess, but to the mother who knows her children’s patterns of play and storytelling…it’s a masterpiece, carefully designed and monitored.
When we moved into our current house, our young daughters shared a bedroom, and we used an extra room as their play room. I would often peek in or listen for several minutes and marvel at their intensely focused imaginations. Sure, there were times I also ranted about the “mess.” Sometimes I had to intervene to separate the opposing imagination super powers. Sometimes I’d sit in the room and read such series as Chronicles of Narnia or Little House on the Prairie for hours. I imposed order into their chaos at times, and I didn’t always understand the order of the chaos, but I often appreciated it.
The girls would pull out their favorite stuffed animals (and they had lots of favorites!) and dress them with anything they could find in the dress up tub or elsewhere in the room. They’d be placed throughout the room in clusters…on the floor, in rooms designed with cardboard bricks, on the play kitchen, and in doll beds. Accessories were added: dishes, plastic food and tools, jewelry, and miscellaneous plastic toys.
It all made sense to the girls. They knew each animal’s name and had a story for each one. As they got a little older, they’d take photos, which are now tucked away in their memory boxes to laugh about and share in years to come. The photos captured not only a moment in time, but memories of the process of play. Serious play.
As I stood in Tracie’s living room, I noticed the telltale signs of organization: clusters of blocks and figurines and patterns of floor space left for maneuvering. Tracie apologized, but I smiled. It brought back memories.
And it made me stop to think of how chaotic our lives often look and feel but how God knows just how it all fits together. We sometimes make a mess of things. Okay, we often make a mess of things. God knows the consequences. We step on a misplaced block or hear the crash of a poorly constructed building. We’re bruised by the conflict of another’s expression of creativity. But our creativity reflects the creativity of God – even when we don’t acknowledge him. He’s a creative God. He’s THE Creator. We were created in God’s image, so we’re creative, too. Ours might be misguided at times, and we distort God’s image, but the source is still God.
God understands the order of our chaos. He knows just where you are, who you are, and what you need. Seek him, trust him, obey him. He can take all the miscellaneous toys in your playroom and create something beyond your wildest imagination!
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. Ephesians 1:11 (The Message)