A Developed Sense of Fancy
Howard Thurman is in deep territory in today’s reading (Deep Is the Hunger). He writes of a “sense of fancy” and notes that this is “the particular gift of little children” – fairies, Santa Claus, talking with dolls – this is normal in children but (I love this line) “if this sort of thing persists into manhood and womanhood, the individual may be regarded as being somewhat off-balance.” That said, Thurman notes that as adults we must hold on to a “developed sense of fancy” which he describes as “the ability to envision things in terms of their highest meaning and fulfillment, even as one grapples with them in the present as they are.” A tall order indeed, to see things as they are, yet also see them as they might be. But there is method to his madness:
“A developed sense of fancy illumes the dark reaches of the other person until there is brought to light that which makes for wholeness and beauty in him. This is what God is doing in human life all the time.”
Indeed, it must be, or God would have given up on us long ago.
It occurs to me... 