God is a creator God and we are made in His image. Creativity (the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work) is very much part of what it means to be human, even if we don’t always feel particularly creative.
I have been involved in fund-raising for different charities and organisations for a very long time and one of the challenges of fund-raising is finding different ways of doing the same thing (i.e. raising funds!) People tend to get bored with one thing and enjoy diversity, so the imagination is often closely allied to the practical when it comes to raising money.
On holiday recently we stumbled across an exhibition in a community centre which was aimed at raising funds for a small church in Jurby. Jean Tucker is obviously a very creative lady, for she has made a whole range of stuffed mice in tableaux depicting life throughout the whole year and has even written a song called ‘The Jurby Polka’. You can find out more about this here: ‘The Jurby Polka’. I suspect this has to be one of the most creative ways of fund-raising I’ve ever come across and it certainly gives new meaning to the phrase ‘poor as church mice’!
At the end of the tableaux, ‘Jacob’s Junction’ can be found:
Each scene has a short poem attached to it:
The tableau shows us heaven and hell:
I’m not sure if senior citizens get to the Pearly Gates free simply by virtue of their age, as is implied here (theologically, I’m glad none of us have to pay to get into heaven!), but nonetheless, the exhibition was a marvellous example of creativity and good fun. From mice playing in the snow to dancing around the maypole to celebrating the Diamond Jubilee by dancing the Jurby polka, it was amazing to see the hard work and talent of a lady who clearly has found a novel and entertaining way of raising funds.