Читать книгу Grounded in God, Revised Edition - Stephanie A. Hull - Страница 11

FOUR

Engaging the Imagination

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal…. –Rev. 22:1a

He was an artistic man–creative, with significant professional accomplishment. But his troubled life moved from crisis to crisis. He often cried out for help. Over the years, a number of people from the local church community went to great lengths to help him out. Without fail, he would push them beyond their limits, demanding more than they could give. Eventually the inevitable breach would fracture another relationship.

A woman from the congregation was in a deep silence, holding this man in prayer, when a vivid picture flooded her imagination: an enormous thistle, glorious with purple bloom, appeared in the window. It was so real that she checked to see if it was physically there. Through this unanticipated image, God provided insight that could be shared with those concerned. A blossoming thistle is a plant of beauty. Butterflies–symbolic of the Resurrection–feed on the nectar of its flower. Yet beware of getting too close! Thistles do not allow people to touch them. This mental picture helped the people involved realize that they could not touch this man's life directly as they had been trying. But perhaps they could touch him in some other way by recognizing his inner beauty and the potential of his work.