To Run Wild

We need archetypes because how to become more feminine is obvious is some ways, but not in others. An archetype is an image, a character, a story, that gives us a good direction to start in, while not being too specific. It is an art teacher telling you to paint spring, while not forcing you to have any one item in the picture. It is a guide telling you the mountains are west, but sending you off on your own to discover the rivers, and pastures, and wildlife between here and there. This really bothers some people. Some people just want the end product and how to get from here to there the quickest way possible. But life only happens on the way. Creativity, and joyful, artistic expression, is what happens when you give a child of God a paintbrush and a blank canvas. And that is what God has given you: an artist’s heart, the blank canvas of life on which you are to paint, and a paintbrush.

God is the great author of life and love and faith, and you are an author too. God painted the world and sky with color, and you are a painter too. Why would you let someone else take your canvas away, and turn it into a ‘paint by number’ slat? I actually know parents who will not give their children paint by number coloring books. At first, I thought that was very weird, but then I saw the wisdom of it. Why just notice where your children have colored outside the lines, when you could get a glimpse into what they think their neighborhood, their dog, their family looks like. You can ask them why they drew mommy with a baby that hasn’t been born yet, or why they colored the sky red instead of blue, and they’ll tell you amazing things. You are God’s child, and you have amazing creativity that delights His heart as well. Don’t be scared of a blank canvas. The struggle, confusion, and moments of breakthrough that follow, are what fill a canvas with original art.

This isn’t to say that there are no rules or right ways of doing things. But God’s rules are not about uniformity. When God says no to something, it is because He is shouting yes to something so much better. Start to look for the ‘yes and amen’, in the law. G. K. Chesterton has said: “the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”