I’m up earlier than usual and walking Penelope down the root broken sidewalk next door. “I’m walking on sunshine and don’t it feel good,” Zooey Deschanel. That quote is perfect for the happiness I feel today. I’m walking down the sidewalk I rode my bikes on during childhood, from bikes to unicycles to skates to skateboards, then to roller blades, something with wheels and I was off through the neighborhood to my best childhood friend Chip’s house or to the library for books.

Tom Stoppard said, “If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” Not a day goes by that I don’t have a happy memory of my childhood as I sit in the swing and ponder life in my little neighborhood. I know I grew up in a magical time in the world, free to explore and enjoy the wonder and freedom of a safe unrestricted childhood. Those days are gone and the world is spinning so fast we’re being slung around, clutching our life line of cell phones. Maybe we’ll slow down.

“Let your life lightly dance on the edge of time, like dew on the tip of a leaf,” Rabindranath Tagore. The world is so pretty this morning as the dew sparkles when the sun hits the shady spots. Let’s all tap dance on life’s happy moments today. They go so quickly!

The late afternoon sky was full of Father Sky’s sketches of clouds, shaded with various colors of gray from his pastel box. The sky was an overcast monochromatic masterpiece in gray. Mother Nature prepared a closed stage for the pageant of sunset, hemming the gray horizon’s curtains with water colored layers of aqua and golden honey.

The sun was dressed in a formal gown of sterling silver taffeta. The gown’s skirt was embellished with magnolia bloom appliqués fashioned from gleaming sequins and antique lace. Her golden ray of hair was adorned with a diamond tiara and her ears were clipped with gray sapphire clusters. She wore long gloves of pale gray satin, pulled to her elbows, and Cinderella’s glass slippers slipped on her feet.

Not to be outdone, Father Sky was dressed in a modern linen suit of heather gray. His white silk shirt was buttoned with black studs and sterling silver engraved cuff links peeked from his shirt cuffs. A monogrammed handkerchief of elderberry blue peeked perfectly from his coat’s breast pocket. His thin tie of eucalyptus colored silk was tied perfectly and held in place with a diamond stick pin. On his feet were his grandfather’s spit polished tan wingtip shoes. He reached out and took the gloved hand of the sun and they walked down the horizon and took the day’s light with them as they said good night to the day and good morning to the night. Such a handsome couple to take the day’s light away.

I think having an imagination is such a wonderful thing. And I know mine works in overtime. In my creative writing class in college many times my writings were read aloud in class by my professor. Often in class our assignment was reaching down in a little brown paper sack, picking an object, and writing something creative about what we chose from the bag. I loved putting pen to paper and creating something with my imagination. I know our imagination is a gift from God and I think as we age if we don’t tap into our imagination occasionally we’re missing one of life wondrous workings. You don’t use it, you lose it.

I often wonder about God’s imagination. All the wondrous critters and creatures he placed on earth and all the magnificent colors of our natural world came from his imagination. He created the whole universe from nothing so he must have a marvelous imagination.

Creating the earth was an expression of God’s imagination and God’s imagination fills the pages of the Bible. Genesis 1:1-3 reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”

He created the beautiful sunlit days, ending and beginning with wondrous sunrises and sunsets and he put the luminious moon and the twinkling stars high in the night sky to light the dark heavens. God created light first and his light is the basis for life on earth. God is light. His light is a symbol of goodness and grace and hope.

He created the light to dispel the darkness on earth both literally and figuratively. We’ll never have to walk in the darkness if we have faith in the light of God. 1 John 1:5-7 reads, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”

Jesus wanted his disciplines to let their lights of belief in him shine so the whole world could see God’s light. As the children’s song says, “Let your light shine and let Jesus shine through you.” As Christians we need to let our lights of faith shine brightly and help bring others from their darkness into the light of our Lord. Let’s let our lights shine bright for the Lord.

“Let your light shine. Shine within so you can shine on someone else.” — Oprah Winfrey