Making My Own Froth

For Christmas, my mom gave me this handy-dandy froth maker. It's a small hand tool that whips milk into shape.

In other words, it makes ordinary coffee into a celebration.

When did we stop making our own froth? When did we come to depend on Starbucks?

You must realize by now that I'm not just talking java. I'm talking imagination.

When did we depend on others to imagine for us? When did we stop singing songs and writing poetry and sketching landscapes?

Back in the day, not my day, but a day long before me, that's what people did for entertainment after dinner. They'd sally into the drawing room and take turns at the harpsichord. Or they'd sketch each other. Or play games.

Yes, yes. You say, but that's the bourgeousie. The peasant class didn't have time for such silliness.

They didn't? That's where folk songs originated. You know, from the folks. As a community, they sang together, improved new diddies together, told stories.

We've lost a theology of imagination.

Of course there have been paid artists, musicians, writers through the ages. I'm not arguing to get rid of them (I'd be talking myself out of job!). But when have we relegated all of our creativity to celebrities and professionals?

My husband and I've recently joined an Anglican church. One of the great things about an Anglican church is The Common Book of Prayer. The prayer we used to say after every service went like this:

Almighty God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Part of being dedicated to God means to allow Him to fill and use our imaginations.

I understand that we all have different personalities and different strengths. I'm not saying that we should all become professional artists. I am saying that just as I have to also use math and logic in my everyday life, though those aren't my strengths (bills have to be paid and accounts have to be kept for my business!), so should we all exercise our imaginations on a daily basis, whether through dance, mothering, cooking, developing businesses that are to the welfare of the people, coloring, building, singing, writing. Using our imaginations is not a superfluous idea. It's part of our calling as humans made in the image of our Creator and as Christians being restored to the complete image of our Creator.

So go into the world in peace and make your own froth!