Pondering how to draw near to God today, I notice three themes show up regularly in our latest conversations. 

Breath prayer. 

Lectio Divina. 

Creativity.

Lord, what are Your invitations for this day? 

Be still, daughter. Listen. 

I pause and I wonder. 

As one who thinks outside the proverbial box: what would it be like if I combined all three of these threads of beauty? How might they lead me deeper into intimacy with Father, Son, and Spirit?

Glancing back through my conversations with God journal, several words pop out at me. 

• • • Dwell. 

• • • Slow. 

• • • Grow. 

 

• • • Dwell. 

• • • Slow. 

• • • Grow. 

 

I’m listening, God. Do You have more to say?

Yes, daughter of Mine. What images come to your mind as you say those words?

 A turtle. A turtle dwells in the slow. 

A bird. A bird dwells in a nest.

A whale. A whale dwells in the deep.

My heart. My heart dwells in the slow, in the nest of simply being present, in the deep.

Delightful daughter, you are onto something. I love how you are so creative. Create an image so you won’t forget those words that I’m sending as invitations to you today.

Creative as both identity and prayer language for my heart invites the childlike wonder in me to come alive. 

At every turn, into the green wonder of becoming more fully alive, more integrated, more healed, God who made me keeps on inviting me to re-image myself the way He sees me. If I begin to believe what God sees, then how do I—how do we—begin to see ourselves differently?  

I am creative. I now claim that as part of my identity. 

As a matter of fact, you too are creative. Some of you reading this nod in total agreement. Some of you shake your head in utter disagreement.

But what happens if we really lean into the fact that we are made in the image of the Trinity? And, if we really believe that, wouldn’t we have to acknowledge that we have creativity in our DNA? 

This conversation with God about creativity gave me permission to enter the playground of my imagination in my times of prayer. 

Imagination + prayer = a new way of engaging with God.

Some days I doodle or scribble. 

Some seasons I’ve sewn quilts as prayer or woven poetry as small prayers with concise words. 

I pull out watercolors and make messes on the page, enjoying the hot pink and lime green as they interact. 

I’ve torn apart watercolor creations to collage my prayers. Sorted scraps by predominate colors, placed them in see-through bags for easy access, I create. 

God, the maker of all things, allows prayer be wild imaginings on watercolor background. 

Perhaps I’ll make a quirky turtle or nesting bird or a deep diving whale with a scrape of this, a tad bit of that. Voila one turtle slowly appears, fanciful as any young child’s turtles. Maybe there’s a colorful chameleon or a dancing octopus that come onto the page. 

With every moment of playing with papers and creating this collage, my heart is repeating: 

• Dwell. Slow. Grow. 
• Dwell. Slow. Grow. 
• Dwell. Slow. Grow. 

It might not look like traditional prayer, but I am praying. 

I’m inhaling and exhaling breathable words my Good Father has been whispering to me. I’m dipping my toes again into the waters of creativity and childhood wonder, refreshing my heart with Spirit’s nudges.

Is there more You want to show me of the landscape of my heart, Jesus? 

Weave the words into a short breathable phrase, darling one.

• Dwell. 
• Dwell in. 
• Dwell in the 
• Dwell in the slow. 
• Dwell in the slow to. 
• Dwell in the slow to grow. 

And, like that, the playground of my imagination has met the imagination of the One who plays with stars and universes, and such as me, His daughter. 

 

“Imagination demands an image,” G. K. Chesterton said. 

Today, imagination led to image led to intimacy: blend of listening in to the One who loves me so.

You, too, are creative. 

Pull out crayons and scissors, paint and glue. 

Listen in. God’s got things to whisper to you.