What role does engaging the imagination play in teaching children Bible truths?
I gathered my four-year-olds around my feet for our first of a series of lessons on the life of Moses. Joshua perked up when I mentioned Moses and immediately took over lesson time.
"I know! I know! He was a baby…. And there was a bad king who wanted to kill the baby boys… and his mama made a basket and put him in the river to hide him…and the princess saw him… and two alligators swam up to his basket…. and …."
Whoa there, Joshua! Alligators?
I was impressed by all this little four-year-old knew. He spoke with confidence and enthusiasm. I felt pretty comfortable stepping aside and letting him share his knowledge with his Sunday school friends. Up until the part about the alligators, he was very much on point. I couldn't help but smile. I realized Joshua had probably gotten this information from a video.
No doubt about it, Joshua knew his Bible. Before I could get a word out of my mouth, he covered each event that led up to Moses' life in the palace. But what are we to do with those two alligators? Is it okay to use your imagination when teaching children Bible truths?
I struggled with this question when I was first offered an opportunity to write a Bible story for a children's magazine. The editors liked the idea of writing a story of Jesus feeding the multitudes through the eyes of the boy with five loaves and two fish, but I didn't want to step out of my boundaries. Could I do this while still staying true to the scriptures?
A careful study of this miraculous event parked me in the book of John. I'm intrigued by the way John ends his book...
"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." John 21:25
Can you imagine John's frustration? There was so much to write, but he was limited in how much he could put down with his pen and parchment. How many miracles did he leave out? How many divine words fell from Jesus' mouth that went unrecorded? John wanted to write them all. At some point he had to say "And there was more..." So much more that all the books in the world wouldn't hold them. Wow. Those words alone send my imagination soaring... Wondering, imaging. What were those "many other things" Jesus was doing?
Perhaps John considered pulling the young boy aside and asking him how it felt to be the one whose lunch Jesus used to feed 5000 people. Maybe he could ask if he had any idea such a miracle would happen that morning as he watched his mom kneading the dough and smelled the fish cooking in the oven. No. These details needed to be trimmed so the most important events of Jesus' life and ministry could be recorded.
John didn't give us details, but he gave us enough. We can't read the account of the feeding of the 5000 without engaging our imagination. In our imaginations, we see the crowded mountain top, people reaching to take baskets of food. We hear the lively chatter of thousands marveling over how Jesus made the impossible possible. God blessed us with an imagination that enables us to read the words and connect with them in a personal way.
The Sunday following the basket story, I was prepared to teach a lesson on Moses bringing the Ten Commandments to the people. The Fourth of July holiday may have been the reason for an unusually low turnout. Joshua came through the doors all polished and handsome in his navy blue jacket, but there were no other classmates to join him. I thought about taking him over to the next class so he could be with other children, but decided I wanted to have this time with him.
Joshua scanned the room of morning activities I had waiting for early arrivals. He spotted a coloring page of Moses holding the stone tablets in front of the mountain. Interesting... Instead of choosing blocks, or cars, or farm animals, Joshua chose coloring for his free time activity. I seized the opportunity. Joshua and I would color while we talked about Moses.
Joshua searched through a tray of crayons while he repeated his account of Moses in the basket boat. This time he didn't mention the alligators.... So I did.
"What about the alligators?"
"Oh yeah. There were two alligators."
"I wonder if Miriam worried about alligators while she watched Moses floating in his basket boat. The Bible doesn't tell about alligators, but we can use our imaginations when we think about what it might have been like if we were there."
"Yeah. Alligators would be scary."
I began coloring the mountain on my page with a brown crayon. Joshua reached for green.
"I'm gonna color the mountain green. There's grass and trees growing on the mountain."
"Nice work, Joshua."
I shuffled through the crayon tray and found a soft shade of blue to fill in color around the clouds. Joshua peeked at my page and scrambled for another crayon.
"I'm gonna use black for the sky. Like smoke."
Oh my. He was right. His black clouds were better than my blue sky.
"And lightning!"
Joshua found a yellow crayon and scratched out bold zig-zags stretching down from the clouds.
"Lightning... Yes! Great idea, Joshua! I'm going to make some lightning bolts too!"
"What about Moses' face, Joshua? Should we color his face after Moses saw God?"
"Yellow and orange! I'm gonna use yellow and orange!"
I was so busy coloring the mountain and Moses that I almost failed to notice a gopher peeking out from its hole at the bottom of the page. Eventually, it was the little critter's turn to have color. I lamented over which crayon to use.
"Brown, right?"
Joshua gave me a thumbs-up on my color selection and proceeded to tell me all he knew about gophers. Which was a lot.
"I wonder if there were gophers near the mountain where Moses met God. The artist used his imagination when he drew this picture, didn't he?"
Joshua was too busy admiring his finished work to answer.
"Let's put this on the wall!"
"Yes! Let's do. I love that idea, Joshua."
I was putting away the crayons when Joshua's excitement returned. He saw the box of Kix on the countertop.
"Manna! Can I have some manna?"
Manna was last week's lesson. The children used paper bags to gather packing peanuts I'd spread over the floor in the hallway. After all the "manna" was gathered, we met at the table to eat cups of cereal. We talked about how manna might have looked and tasted. Joshua knew our boxed cereal wasn't really manna, but last week's lesson was one he would not soon forget.
Perhaps it's a lamb puppet's story of how wonderful it was to have his kind shepherd bring him back to the fold that paves the way for children to understand the love of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Or maybe it's a pretend journey through the wilderness with hungry tummies that makes them stand in awe of a powerful God who provided food for His people. Through our imaginations, we can put ourselves in the shoes of those who were there, experience what they experienced, and learn what they learned.
Stand firm on the truths of the Bible... Make its words resonate with children in ways they can understand and remember. Bring out the puppets! Spread out the manna! Dress up in a Bible robe and become a character! Let's unleash the gift of imagination so that all the little Joshuas in our lives can come to know and love our wonderful, powerful, loving God!
This is wonderful, Frances! I love all your ideas and I'm glad for your special time with Joshua. When I think of imagination in the Bible, I think of Jesus' parables. So imaginative!
It is always a fine line as you say, but there is a lot of space for imaginations young and old to fill in the beautiful and even not so beautiful parts of the story of God’s people. It increases our understanding and relatability to the text. Imagination is certainly a gift and so much fun to watch in kids.
Love this! I often wondered what our world might look like if God had no imagination or if Jesus didn’t show us the Kingdom with stories…Thank you for using your imagination to teach-those are the lessons we remember