Hide-and-seek was one of my favorite games growing up. I’d crouch under tables, behind bulky clothing items in closets, and pretty much anywhere else I could cram myself in the space of a minute. I wasn’t great at it, but I was seldom the first one spotted.

When I learned that the entire Bible (rather than just the second half) is about Jesus, reading the Old Testament began to feel a bit like my beloved game. If I take my time and pay attention to funny shadows or the sound of breathing, spotting the Savior—even millennia before His incarnation—might not be the hardest thing ever.

Something incredible happens when you give yourself enough space with a single passage to let it seep deep into the marrow of your soul. Today’s post is less explanation, more experiment. Grab a piece of paper to take notes on and just roll with it, okay?

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…

(Colossians 3:16)

The best part of grocery shopping with my mother was the coffee aisle. Millions of beans waited in a line of plastic dispensers, each with a distinct scent. As soon as the other shoppers had moved on, I’d drift from one end of the canisters to the other, nose up close to the spouts, taking in every smell along the way. (I was an odd child.) Mom would bag up her beans, take them home, and the air would smell like heaven a few minutes later.

Let’s jump in where we left off last week without dressing up the introduction too much, shall we?

The preparations are all finished. You’ve got a cozy little nook waiting for you, a chunk of time blocked out just for this, essential supplies at the ready, an alert mind, and a soft heart. Now what?

We took our time getting settled because I wanted the process of preliminaries to be as non-scary as possible. Now that we’ve arrived at the starting line, I’d like to offer a wide assortment of ideas to get your creative energy flowing.

The Wizard of Oz always fascinated me. Maybe it was the singing and the dancing or the pair of glittery heels with the power to change everything that impacted me so much. Or when reality shifted from greyscale to Technicolor and the world was new. I think, at the bottom, it was the characters. Remember the Tin Man? While the Scarecrow desired a brain and the Lion wanted courage, the Tin Man longed for a heart. How often have I found myself in those same metal shoes, not really feeling stupid and not really feeling afraid, but not really feeling much of anything because the heart is out of place?