Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Lite Brite Life


My children were playing with their Lite Bright the other day. It was fun to see them working so seriously at it. It reminded me of when I was a kid...until the Uber-Princess asked me to help. Thanks to upgrades to the modern version, I was able to help her complete it in the fraction of time it used to take. How is that? Cheater pegs! They now make the pegs fused together in groups of two's, three's & four's. So when you can pop them in four at a time, imagine how much faster it can go (and believe me, I made heavy use of those ones on Uber-Princess's design).

Afterward I began thinking about the Lite Brite and how it works. You start with a blank sheet, or maybe one with some lettered spots. Slowly you piece in the colored pegs and a shape begins to form. Yet even with all the pegs in place, while you can see the shape, the actual figure is still dull. But plug it in and let the light shine through and all sorts of details and dimensions come out.

Aren't we like that as people? We're born, albeit not blank sheets, but with a design imprinted on us by God that has no color or shape yet. Then we begin to live and one by one opportunities and circumstances begin to fill in our outline. Over the years our shape becomes recognizable, but perhaps still somewhat undefined. Then one day we find ourselves doing and being what we were made to be. Suddenly God's light shines through us and we're made aware of all the brilliance of color and subtlety of substance that makes us who we are!

Those cheater pegs? I think we have those in life too. Maybe they're shortcuts we take toward our life goals. Or maybe on the positive side they're people who have believed in us and invested in helping us grow.

What do you think?

5 musings:

Craver Vii said...

I appreciate your thoughts here, AMM. I especially like that you allow negative OR positive interpretation for the cheater pegs.

The Hesterbrarian said...

AMM,
I had no idea there were "cheater pegs" for Lite Brite now. Thanks for keeping me "hip" in the toy dept. I love when God uses the "mundane" of our day, and teaches us something really cool. This could be interpreted as a light bulb moment for you...or better said, a "Lite Brite" Moment!

BTW, found your blog after reading Beast Mom's. She is a high school friend of mine. We reconnected at our 20 year HS reunion this year. It is fun to see different blogs she is connected with. I have enjoyed yours.

The Hesterbrarian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
L.L. Barkat said...

Cheater pegs. Well. Of course, then you can tell your own harrowing stories to your kids, of what it was like to insert a peg one at a time as a child. :)

Lara said...

Craver-thanks.

Hestermomma-glad you stopped by (I went to college with Beast Mom).

LL-every generation has to have those kind of stories, huh? Just never thought mine would involve Lite Brite. :)