Engaging Imagination and Teaching God's Truths
Fairies are a big thing around our house. When God blessed me with three precious granddaughters, I was determined to make visits to Granny Mac's house something they looked forward to. I hoped every mud pie we patted out, and every cup of tea we shared on lace-covered tables would become warm memories of our time together. Fairy time was special.
The idea came to me when my first granddaughter was only weeks old. It started small but quickly grew to include fairy gardens, fairy parties, and a fairy book to chronicle our days together. I paused for a time to evaluate the wisdom of my fairy idea. My number one desire was for my grandchildren to come to know and love God. Could they understand the difference between fairytale fantasies and a God who is bigger than our imaginations? Is it possible to enter the God-given imagination of a child and teach them in a way that doesn’t distort the truth but rather points them to it?
Early childhood educators agree. Children learn through play. No doubt, this is God's design. When we limit avenues to use their imaginations to activities that only teach life skills, we miss opportunities to open their eyes to the beauty of God's Word. Its truth can be packaged in ways that invite curious little ones to listen, understand, and remember when simple lectures cannot.
I wanted my time with my grandchildren to count for the Kingdom. I resolved always to point out truth as truth and pretend as pretend. There would be fun...There would be teachable moments...and there would be stories written in a book to anchor them to the truths their grandmother would teach them as they grew.
Take a peek at the preface to my Fairy Forest book...Written especially for my grandchildren and shared with you!
Preface
In the beginning, God created…
Oh, the wonderful things He created! Sun and moon, oceans and mountains. Big things and little things. Soft things and prickly things. Everything. God was pleased with His creation.
“It is good.”
“It is good.”
“It is good.”
Each time God created a new thing, He smiled with delight and said, “It is good.”
God saved His most special creation for last.
Man.
God made Adam from the dust of the ground. He molded and shaped him and blew His breath into Adam.
God’s breath. In Adam.
And from this man, brought to life with the very breath of God, Eve was created.
God smiled again. Creating people was good.
Better than good.
God said it was VERY good.
God gave the garden spider instructions to weave works of art from its sticky silk threads. He gave the bluebird directions to build masterful nests to hold its young...But to people, He gave the ability to create from the dust of their imaginations.
You see, unlike everything else He had made, God made people in His own image.
Yes, men and women, and boys and girls were created to be creative because they were made in the image of their Creator. They were made to worship Him who brought all of creation into being.
All of creation...
Perfumed daffodils, orange-striped kittens, roaring oceans... Everything from the tiniest bug to the brightest star zillions of miles away.
Did God make fairies?
No.
But God made grandmothers, and when He made Granny Mac He dished out an especially big scoop of imagination and said,
“There, Granny Mac. Use your imagination. Go out and create. And when you do, do it for My glory.”
Granny Mac wasn’t always a granny. She treasured the day she became one. On the first morning when tiny baby Sara Cate came to stay at her house, Granny Mac held her gently against her shoulder and took her for a walk outside. She spotted a hole at the bottom of the trunk of a tall maple tree. The hole sunk into the tree with just enough room to keep a small frog dry in a rain shower. Its arched shape reminded her of a wide-open door, welcoming forest critters to come in for a visit. Granny Mac’s imagination began to soar.
“Look Sara Cate”, Granny Mac said, “A fairy house! When you are bigger, we will come here and visit fairies!”
Well Granny Mac’s imagination turned on, and there was no shutting it off. A hole in the tree was not good enough for Sara Cate’s fairy friends. They needed a house….
and a yard… a yard with a carpet of soft green moss,
And ducks to swim in a pond nearby,
and a kitty, and a dog…
and trees...
So, in the imagination of Granny Mac, Fairy Forest was born. It was time to bring an old glass box down from the attic... A flea market find. Twenty-five dollars for a tattered old box that once held a display of potato chips in a country store. The day Granny Mac bought the box, she didn’t know why she needed it.
She just knew.
The glass box became a forest for fairies. When its doors were opened, the musky smell of cool moss beckoned its visitors to come in. There they found...
trees with trunks burrowed into the carpet of moss,
ducks swimming in a mirrored pond,
a kitty waiting on the porch of a tiny house,
a dog walking down a pebble path...
And fairies too.
If you sat long enough, you could almost hear the flutter of their wings.
Fairy Forest would become a place where pumpkins grow in the fall and flowers bloom in the spring. There would be Christmases and birthdays, and first days of school. Happy times would be celebrated in Fairy Forest.
Fairy Forest would also be a good place to visit on sad days. It would be a warm place to go when tears needed to be dried or words of wisdom needed to be heard.
Granny Mac imagined that one day her precious grandchildren would look forward to hearing the stories of Fairy Forest. She imagined the stories she wrote in their books would be a treasure of memories that started when they were brand new in this world...books filled with stories about their lives as they grew.
More than anything, Granny Mac wanted Fairy Forest to make her grandchildren smile and thank God for making them in His image. From the very bottom of Granny Mac’s big heart, she prayed that the pretend stories of Fairy Forest would help her grandchildren come to know and love their very real Creator God...
A God who holds grandmothers, tiny new babies, and this great big, beautiful world in the palm of His hand.
If you have been following Light From the Loft on Facebook or Instagram, you know about the fairy rocks we are hiding across the US and even in other countries. Smooth, round stones with whimsical fairy images are tucked into patches of moss and beds of ivy on trails where visitors often travel. With each rock I hide, I pray that the one who lifts it from its nature bed will flip it over and see a scripture passage on the back. Those who look up the verse, John 8:12, will be introduced to Jesus, the Light of the world...Perhaps they will hang out in the book of John for a while to learn more about Him.
No, fairies aren't real... But a painted fairy rock snuggled into a moss-carpet path just might be the vessel that brings Light into the heart of someone struggling in darkness.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12.
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using your imagination to teach children biblical truths,
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Yes! God. The original writer, creator, inspirer! So grateful he gave you this beautiful gift to share about Him to children. 🥰 - C-Love
Love this so much! What a fun way to teach children about God. So inspirational and creative!
Oh, Frances! I ADORE this post! It's such an uplifting, happy one - one that brings precious memories, provocative thoughts, and wispy dreams! I especially love the paragraph with the spider's instructions, bluebird's directions, and people's abilities to create. And those pictures?!? Priceless! Thank you so much for the beautiful inspiration. You're an amazing and gifted writer. 🥰✏️🩷 -Jennifer