This week, my devotional readings are all about the creativity of Celtic Christians and their fondness for storytelling and poetry. As many of you will know, this is an area close to my heart as I greatly value the power of story and imagination and the beauty of language.

I thought that, to begin this week, I'd share a piece of my own writing with a spiritual meaning. It's a poem based on an exposition I once heard of the parable of the mustard seed.

Mustard Wrote:Darkness surrounds them, like smothering arms,
As they stare at each other with eyes wide, but blind,
Reaching with hands that are numbed by the cold,
To seek out and cling to warm flesh and its charms.

They huddle together, call memories to mind,
And dream of a future they've prayed for of old.
That seed which was planted, the end of the fight,
They can't see it growing; its vines, unheard, bind

To the stones all around them, each covered in mould,
And squeeze through the dust with a gradual might.
No rocks tumble downwards to trigger alarms,
So each prisoner, praying, seems trapped in his fold,

But soon they will witness an end to their plight,
An end to supression, death dealt to death farms!
Each moment of faith will be honoured in kind
And lead, through the debris, straight into the light.

The idea is that faith in Christ, sometimes slowly and subtly, sometimes in a sudden rush, always like a steadily growing plant, breaks through the darkness of lives imprisoned within sin to set us free.

It would be wonderful if others felt like sharing some of their own work touching on faith this week, even if you think it might be more challenging. Anyone is free to contribute here, so long as it remains a safe space for people to do so.

What do creativity and imagination mean to you? Are they important? Do they help you to transcend the mundane and, if so, do they help you to understand God a little?