A CHILDS IMAGINATION

Growing up, being around my cousins was (and still is) a good time. There were a lot of us so, of course, we were usually sent outside play, which was fine by me.

One of those times, several of us were running around outside and decided to re-enact The Wizard of Oz (not sure why, maybe it was the time of year where it had recently played on TV, or maybe because we were kids and that was all the reason we needed). One of the older kids assigned characters to each of us; I don’t recall which character I was, probably a munchkin or monkey…nothing cool like the Tin Man or Oz. Before we got too far into our characters, we needed to create the tornado scene. My cousins' house had a hill on one side, and the plan was to roll down the hill to simulate being in a tornado. So, when we got to that part, we all lined up at the top of the hill and rolled down. Yes, only Dorothy was in the tornado, but we were kids and all of us wanted to experience the tornado. After rolling down the hill, we all got up, dizzy and wobbling into one another. After we got ourselves together we continued re-enacting the rest of the movie. It was a very fun and imaginative time. To this day, I remember rolling down that hill with my arms tucked in, rolling for what seemed like for miles, seeing the sky, the earth, the sky again, until I reached the bottom.

 

                          How we imagined it.                          

       How we actually looked...thank God for imagination       

Many years later while visiting my cousins, I looked up at “tornado” hill. Thinking back to that day, I walked to the top of it and with one large step I was at the bottom. The massive hill of my youth was actually less than 3 feet tall and 3 feet long. Oh, to have the innocent imagination of a child.

Matthew 18:3 Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

WHO'S INFLUENCING YOU

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn

Recently, my sister-in-law, my wife, and I were taking a casual boat ride along the shores of a lake up north. It was a beautiful evening! A bald eagle swooped down in front of the boat and then flew up into a pine tree and perched there for a while as we took several pictures. We continued on, enjoying the lush landscape bordering the lake. Eventually, we came to an area of pine trees that had a few leaning out from shore, away from the crowd; it reminded me of my life in high school.

Most of my time in high school was spent with four other guys, and we would get into trouble…a lot of trouble. It didn’t matter if all five us were together or if it was just one of us, if something bad happened, we were all presumed guilty. That’s where I learned the term “guilty by association”. I wasn’t too concerned when I was presumed guilty for something one of the other guys did because we always looked out for one another, and they would take the blame for me as well. The principle and vice principle of our high school knew us very well. Needless to say, the road I was on didn’t have a lot of promise to it.

During summer break one year, on the 4^th of July to be exact, a friend of mine introduced me to her friend. Well, that friend of hers became my girlfriend and has been my wife now for almost 25 years. Having a steady girlfriend immediately changed my priorities; I wanted to be a better person. My buddies noticed it right away. They gave me a hard time, of course, but they knew how important she was to me. There is still distant contact with one of those guys, but I wouldn’t change where I am today. Sometimes it only takes one person to make a dramatic difference in your life and change the course of your path.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will.