The license to fool people is expanded every April 1st. My son was 4 when he saw "The Wizard of Oz." Later that week, high winds rattled our aluminum-sided home.
"A tornado will hit our house," our little boy shuddered. "I can't sleep."
"This is not like "Oz," I said, "That won't happen."
"But it's possible," he insisted.
I tried an April-Fools-type joke. "There's a pink elephant in our garage," I said.
"That's silly," he laughed.
"But it's possible," I responded.
Gladly, he got it and went off to sleep.
"Our lives are driven by fantasy," says film Professor Howard Suber. "It's a word derived from 'phantom.' It isn't there."
Classifying a tornado-strike's likelihood as a pink elephant healed my son's anxiety. Yet, because of how our brains work, "fantasy" is often more powerful than measurable realities.
Non-Christians view Easter as fantastical. For Christians, the resurrection fuels a vital energy: hope.
Radical Loving Care leaders understand that curing relies on concrete medical treatments whereas healing depends on belief. Those same leaders enable caregivers to use the most magical power they have: the administration of daily doses of love to enable the healing power of hope.
-Erie Chapman
Image: adambarronphoto
