The playfulness of God
“What do you do for play?”
I was left silent when someone asked me this question last week. It was a very specific question. If she had asked, “What do you do for fun?” I would have had a ready list: Photography, coffee with friends, reading, gardening (lately), occasional board games. They are, of course, all forms of amusement, too, but I hadn’t really thought of them as play before.
It got me thinking. Aside from my youth group days of games that would never pass safety regulations today, I couldn’t really recall a lot of playfulness in my church experiences. Everything came with a lesson attached. God and God’s business was always to be taken very seriously, even as children.
Can we imagine God as playful? Imagine what kind of humour and joy it takes to create a platypus, or gerber daisies, or mushrooms, or icebergs, or humans, for that matter. What about Jesus? I can think of at least two examples of Jesus honouring playfulness.
The first is the miracle at Cana, turning water into wine (John 2:1-11). You may have heard he had to do it to prevent the groom’s family from being shamed by running out of wine. That is very likely. It was also his first miracle, when “He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11, Common English Bible). But there could be more. It is his mother who draws his attention to the scarcity of wine. Jesus responds, “What does that have to do with me? My time hasn’t come yet.”
Why is he so reluctant? I think there are two possibilities. Perhaps he was having so much fun, he didn’t want to end it by making a big spectacle. Or, what if he wasn’t having enough fun? What if his mother saw him, in the midst of a celebration, brooding about his “time”, and she wanted to teach him a lesson about the need for play and fun? The lesson, perhaps, is, “Your time will come. Have some fun along the way. Because the time will come when the play is over, and you will need to remember what you are living for.”
The second example is with the children. In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, a group of people bring children to Jesus in order to bless them. The disciples resist this interruption and try to send them away. But Jesus calls them back. “Let the children alone—let them come to me. The kindom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14, The Inclusive Bible) Again, there are a few interpretations. Children are the most vulnerable, and so we should be vulnerable enough to go to Jesus. The children are so eager to see Jesus, and we should be, too. But what about the main daily occupation of children–to play? What if the kindom of heaven belongs to children because the kindom of heaven is a place of release, curiousity and, yes, even fun?
God joins us in everything we do. In each moment we are introduced to a new face of God. What face of God could we meet if we spend more time in play?
