As a little
kid, one of my favorite ways to pass the time was doodling and making designs
with a geometric drawing toy called Spirograph. If you're older than 30, chances are you had one, too and you might remember the commercials featuring the children having endless fun as they sang, "I just don't believe it, I don't believe it, the things I can do with my Spirograph."
The kit came with paper, special drawing pens/pencils, a master guide and circular grids. You could make hundreds of circular designs by simply placing your pencil in the grooves of the various-sized round grids within the space that was allowed. This circular motion gave you the ability to make simple to complex designs freely – so long as you stayed within the master template guide.
You could be creative and come up with your own designs or you could re-create designs from ones that were on the traceable paper. Whichever one you chose, there was a pattern that formed, enabling you to create something that was symmetrically and perfectly aligned. The guiding template was there to keep you from straying and from making unnecessary strides that would take you too far from the intent of the design. It kept you within the boundaries and parameters of where you needed to be.
Reflecting back to it, what I remember most and now understand from a spiritual standpoint is that with every stroke and every circular motion, in order to get anywhere, the movement of the Spirograph forced you to always come back to the center as that was the base. You couldn’t effectively go anywhere without returning to the center for direction. Even if you became confused with rotating your little circle, not sure if you should move clockwise or counter-clockwise, you could always come back to the center for guidance.
Life is a lot
like that. It’s a spiritual Spirograph with God as our center, base and
master designer. If we learn to move only in the circles that He instructs us
to move in, and return to the center base for further direction, then we end up
with an amazing masterpiece design! God gives us free will to make choices. We
should make those choices under the careful guidance of God’s Almighty hand and
let him lead us in the direction that we should go. The kit came with paper, special drawing pens/pencils, a master guide and circular grids. You could make hundreds of circular designs by simply placing your pencil in the grooves of the various-sized round grids within the space that was allowed. This circular motion gave you the ability to make simple to complex designs freely – so long as you stayed within the master template guide.
You could be creative and come up with your own designs or you could re-create designs from ones that were on the traceable paper. Whichever one you chose, there was a pattern that formed, enabling you to create something that was symmetrically and perfectly aligned. The guiding template was there to keep you from straying and from making unnecessary strides that would take you too far from the intent of the design. It kept you within the boundaries and parameters of where you needed to be.
Reflecting back to it, what I remember most and now understand from a spiritual standpoint is that with every stroke and every circular motion, in order to get anywhere, the movement of the Spirograph forced you to always come back to the center as that was the base. You couldn’t effectively go anywhere without returning to the center for direction. Even if you became confused with rotating your little circle, not sure if you should move clockwise or counter-clockwise, you could always come back to the center for guidance.
Who knew you could learn so much from a geometric toy!
I had a Spirograph, and I'm not even 20! Also, that was a very simple, but very good comparison.
ReplyDeleteHmmm Hmmm Hmmm!!!! That's good, Pastor!
ReplyDelete