Lego dreams

One night, when I was in first standard, I had a dream.

We were living in "Elim" - the OM base in Nana Chowk, Mumbai - and at that point our family was in one section of a cavernous ground floor, partitioned off with unpainted plywood walls.

As kids, we had inherited some lego pieces from someone. With them were some pictures of other sets and buildings, using far more bricks and pieces than were in our collection.

My dream was that our toy cupboard was full of new lego sets. Full. Brimming with them. I went and opened the cupboard and took them out. Unbelievable.

When I woke up, I repeated the action.

I went to the cupboard and opened its wooden doors.

No new sets. It was all a dream.

Looking back its remarkable that the dream remains so fresh in my memory. Perhaps the disappointment of seeing the still largely empty cupboard?

Over the years, however, the dream actually came true! We were given various sets of legos - some hand-me-downs, others purchased from stores after much debate and choosing - courtesy of our German relatives. By the time I finally grew out of lego (did I?) we had a sea of pieces that could only be stored in a suitcase. The inheritance of plastic bricks is still very much with us, thanks to careful storage by my parents.

I was reminded of the dream by the lad in the photo below:


Enoch currently lives and breathes lego. This morning the first thing I heard from him was the clink of him putting pieces together (yes - the Stefan / Andi lego hoard is still very much in use by this generation). When Enoch comes home from school he throws off his uniform and goes straight to the legos. In between we have numerous spreadings of pieces in different parts of the house as various games are played by Enoch and his merry lego-men.

In Enoch's childlike openness he is candid enough to say that he wants "a whole world of lego." It is my parental duty to explain how it would be best for Enoch to fully use the amazing set that we already have before dreaming about getting more.

How good it was that I did not have my dream come true - at least at that time when I dreamed it. We want so many things - seemingly so badly. But in reality, so few things are really needed. Our task is rather to make the very best use of what we have been so generously given. I think that growing up Stefan and I were tremendously blessed by the limits on what we got (though our childish hearts did not always appreciate it at the time).

Jesus (quoted by Paul in Acts 20.35) says that it is more blessed to give than to receive (interestingly, a statement not recorded in any of the four gospel accounts). It it really more blessed? Most of us think of being blessed primarily by what we have. This was brought out last week by my good friend Aboo. He pushed us to think this way: our greatest blessings are those places where we are able to give - in our homes, to our spouses, in our work-places, in our fellowships. Each place where we are able to contribute is of far greater value to us than how many toys we have. Each person who we are able to invest in - is a blessing to us!

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12 AM - Sunday morning! Thanks for tuning in - the house is quiet. Sheba and the kids are asleep. The fresh smell of just-baked banana bread (the reason I am still up) is around me. The fans are whirring in our hot-monsoonal evening. We had a lovely full Saturday - meeting people, praying, resting, being together.

A final shot: Enoch's latest creation (with co-creation and conceptualisation by Enoch's Daddy - one of the great things about kids growing up is the unashamed opportunities to play with your kids in/with your favourite childhood games).