What Size Is Your Crayon?

When I was in first grade, I had those big fat crayons.  You might remember them.  There were about eight of them that came in a pack.  They were for kids with small hands.  I never really understood the logic of putting big crayons in little kids hands, while the big kids got the small crayons.

I remember, as clear as a bell, a girl in second grade having a box of 64 Crayola crayons.  I gazed upon her multitude of colors and then looked back at my eight.

Her pictures were so much better.  Why?  I know it was because she had more and smaller crayons.

I couldn’t color in the lines.  Even when my crayons became smaller I couldn’t do it.

I was told and cajoled to color in the lines.  And I was never really able to.  Even now, my coloring would not look as neat and beautiful as someone else’s.

Now, as an adult, I face the same challenges.  You mean you want me to drive 50, not 51?  You mean I can’t walk on that grass?  I really want to touch that paint.

I don’t like lines.

I don’t think I’m unique.

The church wants me to color in the lines too.  In many ways I will.  Then, somewhere along the way, I get outside the lines in a big way.

Steven Taylor wrote a couple of decades ago about a guy who has to color inside the lines called “I Want To Be A Clone”.  He satirized the fact that the church wants everyone to conform and be like everyone else.  Many really don’t know what to do with those who want to color outside the lines.

There are people in your church today that color outside the lines.  Maybe an entire church colors outside the lines of the other churches in the area.

Do you know what you should do?

Applaud.  Clap.  Support.  Encourage.

Why?

Because they are part of the Body.  Because they are a leg to your arm.  They are a left hand to your right.

Because they may have little fingers with a big crayon.  Or bigger fingers with a small one.

Because they are drawing and coloring a picture that God finds beautiful.

And so should we.

What size is your crayon?