On Crayons and Meaning

“What are you drawing, Jackson?  Is it a desert?  A beach?”  My friend Chrissy watched as her three-year old moved a single crayon over the 8.5 x 11 printer paper, tongue out, fist clutched, set on maximum coverage.

He looked up, all crinkled nose and furrowed brow.

“No, mama!  It’s brown!”

Brown indeed.

Humans create and interpret meaning all the time - often completely unconscious of it.  Red octagon - STOP, yellow triangle - YIELD.  Upwards thumb silently whispers, “good job!”  Scribbles become the Sahara.

In Thinking Series - a video study we’re doing with our Thrive first-years - apologist Andy Steiger asks us to consider the greatest meaning of all - the Meaning of Life.

Now - as a lifelong interpreter of meaning - I’ve observed from my parents that life is about getting the “best” education to get the “best” job.  From my childhood TV-addiction - that life is about being “cool” and “desirable.”  From the Canadian waters I swim in: finding “happiness” and being “yourself.”

As much as I try to create and interpret meaning for my life, it ends up being frustrating, unsatisfactory, even destructive.  My meanings limit (yet simultaneously overextend!) me, pull me in opposite directions, leave me feeling discontent.  Even when I have a fleeting sense of “making it”- the “best” job, “coolness,” “happiness” - I soon find myself feeling like a plastic plate mistaken for a frying pan.  Headed for serious warping.

As Steiger says, only the artist can ascribe meaning to their creation.  Jackson was the only one who could say what his scribbles meant - even if it was just “brown.”  Our Creator is the One who endows us with meaning.  Graciously, he reveals it through his word, and through the Word made flesh.  Jesus tells us and shows us what being human means.

Lectio Divina:

What does Jesus say in Mark 12:29-31?  How does he show this in his own life and death?

Imagine all of us recognizing and practicing this as the ultimate meaning of our lives.

How do you think it would change how you live?  How would it change your community?  The world?

Karen Schaffer is the Pastor of Spiritual Formation at The Tapestry Richmond
Photo by Joshua Eckstein