Fun with Creativity and The Creator
List five things you do for fun.
WordPress Prompt on January 23rd, 2026
If you’ve read much of my blog, you’ve seen a lot of the things I do for fun. Almost anything kaleidoscopic, colorful, sparkly, or created with words gets my attention. I believe I am creative because I was made in the image of my creative Heavenly Father. Like the aspects of my own parents that I see in my own life, I am thrilled to model aspects of The Lord in my creativity.
The first thing I do for fun is spend time with Yahveh Almighty. Maybe it’s singing to Him, offering praise, giving thanks, reading and studying His Holy Word, or just having a pleasant conversation. However I interact with Him, it truly is a fun thing getting to know The One who put the universe together in infinite ways beyond my finite understanding.
The second thing is spending time with the love of my life, my soldier husband of almost 35 years. We plan to be together “forever and 3 days” because one day past forever isn’t enough. 🥰 Time with him includes more time at home these days, but I have great memories of travel to see my family out west or for vacations to my favorite places like Branson, Missouri, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Even a few short trips like the Red Skelton museum near Evansville, Indiana, and a really cool trip to see the World’s Largest Rocking Chair/Mailbox/Pitchfork Wind Chime/Mousetrap and more in Casey, Illinois. Check out these cool sites…
The third thing is writing. If I didn’t have fun writing, even this blog might seem like work. Although I have had some time where writing wasn’t as fun when I didn’t have the members of my wonderful Louisville Christian Writers (LCW) group to encourage me. And, actually, it wasn’t that writing was not fun so much as my life had so many big things going on just before the start of 2020 that all creativity seemed stifled, so writing and this blog took a hit. But now I’m back here and at LCW, so writing is becoming more fun every day. I hope I get back to poetry soon as well. I’m working on a children’s book from the lyrics of the first song I ever wrote at 7 years old, but I’ll save that for its own post.
The fourth thing is kaleidoscopes. My favorites of these include oil cells with floating pieces of sparkly and colorful stuff like dichroic glass. The two mirrors reflect the pieces into a mandala shape filled with moving designs that have a positive effect on the viewer’s endorphin level. And my wish list for new scopes is pretty big, but with just a few small purchases, it was enough to be considered a collector at my favorite kaleidoscope store: Nellie Bly’s in Jerome, Arizona. I love kaleidoscopes so much, well, you can find a whole album of my inside kaleidoscope pics on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/gp/crystalwriter/cmBKQ5Rp2k And I believe that what I see when I look down the tube of a kaleidoscope is similar to what God sees when He looks at His creations (and people) on this earth. All the designs are beautiful; and they’re even more beautiful when light, especially God’s light, shines through them.
Fifth: Viewing a kaleidoscope doesn’t use my own creativity (though I have built one and want to create more someday), so I love to wax kaleidoscopic and create designs digitally. I use any variety of apps and software to make designs. I started with making tessellations in the Silicon Mirror program by Torpor and later learned what a mandala was. You can still get the program for Windows for only $12, which is what I paid over 15 years ago, and it looks like they’ve come out with a Mac version for 5 bucks. Visit https://torpor.com/smk.htm to see the mirror and his other really cool programs and links to lots of images. My Flickr album for everything kaleidoscopic is at https://www.flickr.com/gp/crystalwriter/2148G1a628 and you can visit https://www.facebook.com/KaleidoscopesPlus to see images from other creative applications. The video at the top is a kaleidoscope transformation made in Mirror Lab. It was a huge file, so I compressed it and added music in Video Show for Android and then let Jetpack’s VideoPress optimize it here. And here are a few static kaleidoscopes I made from the same source as the video was made from.
The 3rd and 5th items could just be called creativity, and there are even more creative pursuits in my life like creating new recipes to cook and spending hours making images with Wombo Dream and a few other AI programs. I hope one day to create a magazine that will include many of my creative outlets along with creations and ideas from others. Getting back here to write again is stirring the creative juices and renewing my hopes for these future dreams. I hope my readers join me in the fun. 😊
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When You Pray
I got a text from a friend tonight. She told me that all over the country (USA), people were going to pray together. At 9 PM, I was to stop what I was doing and spend 1 minute praying for our country. I’m guessing the organizers told people in different time zones what time to pray, so we could all pray together.
Apparently, during World War II, Britain did the same thing and had great success. And it can never be a bad idea to bring any facet of life to The Creator of life and then trust The Master to work well with His creations. So, hubby and I joined hands and bowed our heads, and we prayed. We were in a restaurant, so you know that’s exactly when our server brought the first part of our meal. But she was respectful and waited. I pray it lifted up The Lord in her thoughts.
The day brought a lot of activity, and the night brought temperatures cut in half from the day, but all in all, it felt like a good day. I don’t want to bore folks with all my daily doings, so I looked in my photo history with my Amazon Photos and found this image from Jan 22 of 2024. It reminded me of the 9 PM prayer and thus became tonight’s blog image.
Now, I invite you readers to join believers all over who are taking that minute to lift up our land, our people, and our leadership to The Lord.
Most of us have no idea what our leadership faces from enemies, both foreign and domestic. We live our lives, go to our jobs, have meals with friends and family, and take care of business while remaining blissfully unaware of the threats our leaders must watch for and prepare defenses against. We form our opinions and make our judgments on the little we think we know from what gets shared over the airwaves. But Yahveh Almighty sees what we cannot. He knows the threats, the credible plans, and the steps needed to protect us. So, our leaders need us to pray. And our Creator wants us to pray and wants to listen. Let’s gratefully step up to just one minute each night to raise a collective voice of prayer and praise toward Heaven and know that God is listening. In YahShua’s name.
🙏✨🤲✨🛐✨🛐✨🤲✨🙏
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A Little Bit of Snow
(CC BY-NC-SA)
Brr 🥶! Super cold temperatures are absolutely not my favorite thing. Ice storms, snow storms, and dips below freezing (32°f) make me want to stay hidden in a warm house under cozy blankets.
My husband made the statement that “it’s not that bad” and that started a whole conversation. Why does it seem worse to me than it does to him? Simple, I was not raised with cold or snow. If my sister and I saw a little ice in a puddle, we would slide a shoe over it like our one foot was ice skating. If we found a little bit of snow, we got really excited and wanted to touch it or crunch through it the way little boys love to splash in rain puddles. But both were rare in Southern California.
My first experience with strong cold and lots of snow was when my photography company sent me to Wisconsin in the middle of an arctic cold front. The temperature was 35° below zero, and it dropped to 84° below zero with the wind chill. I was warned not to breathe the air in without a scarf over my mouth, and my co-worker had to have her car towed to a garage to warm it up just to get started. That would be harsh for anyone, but those who live in that kind of cold regularly are prepared. Some even have plugs on their cars to connect to available power sources to heat their oil. It’s not that bad where I live now in Kentuckiana, but it’s still hard on my Western-raised body, even after 35 years here.
Do you have any life changes that have been harder for you to deal with because of a lack of familiarity? For example, if you were raised in a dysfunctional family, maybe going to someone else’s family gathering is somewhat uncomfortable. Or, maybe like me, you are childless, and hearing women talk about having babies or raising children feels awkward because you cannot relate to any of it. On the other hand, I imagine women who have traditional families, pregnancies, births, etc., and then read Scriptures about the curses that often made women in the Bible barren, may feel awkward with me. They must wonder if there’s a curse involved because I wondered that for a long time myself.
See, experience breeds familiarity, and familiarity breeds confidence. My husband is far more confident about driving in the snow than I will ever be. But driving in snow, no matter how much fear it creates in me, is a little thing compared to the blinding Light of Christ to an unbeliever who was never raised around godliness or biblical Scripture. 1 Peter 2:9 speaks of God “calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” If you’ve ever come out of a dark room into bright light, you know what this is describing.
When we minister to those who are not familiar with the Gospel, we need to think of the way unfamiliar things make us feel. We need to remember that light can be blinding to those who have been in the dark for a long time. And we need to teach with such compassion and understanding that we are not surprised when a person we’re trying to teach feels overwhelmed by what we are used to in our walks with The Lord. If they reject the message for a time, it doesn’t mean you or I are bad teachers. Even Jesus did not convince every person He reached out to. Sometimes, someone is just set in their own ways and refuses to consider a new way. Other times, it may just take some time for their spiritual eyes to adjust to The Light. That’s when we let them play in just a little bit of snow for a bit until they’re ready for the deep stuff. ❄️
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This Day’s Prompt on Decluttering…
… Asked the question, “Where can you reduce clutter in your life?” I knew I could answer with something spiritual, or I could answer that question with the physical clutter in my life. I could go room by room, inbox by inbox, and even list Christmas movies on my DVR. But I wanted to see how a few others answered, and I’m so glad I looked because one of the blogs I found has a great article that spoke to my heart and spirit. (There are other posts I want to read there as well, so I followed and decided it was a great post to reblog.)
I hope my visitors enjoy this post by the Grace-In-Between blog, and may you feel the wonderful blessings of Yahveh Almighty as you rest with Him this Sabbath.
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From Whence Came the Poet
On this day (Jan 15) in 2022, we officially said goodbye to the father of many. My sibling family is a large one consisting of both sisters and brothers. Some are half-siblings, step-siblings, and adopted siblings, but they are all mine. The sister I was raised with has her own special place in my heart and life, but I carry each of my siblings in pockets of my heart—and often to God’s throne in prayer.
You see, I am the first born to this man who was wild yet called. His life was a wrestling match of soul and spirit with a God who never gave up on him. He ran from God geographically (though that’s not truly possible), and he ran emotionally, but he always came back. Whether it was a grenade in the face when his tunnel rat duties got him too close to the enemy in Vietnam, or a moment when lyrics or poetry came pouring out of him to remind him that God still loved and pursued him, something was always pulling him back to a place to consider God again.
He left my mom and sister and I just after I turned 5 years old. My mom kept all his pictures and told me stories of things like his interview with Jerry Dunphy after the incident in Vietnam. She said he was in a hospital bed and told the reporter that he prayed for God to give him his eyesight back, so he could see his girls. My favorite picture was the one with guys from his Brave Lions group that showed my name tattooed on his arm. And, yes, I wrote a song about that tattoo.
The years after that were scattered and chaotic. He had multiple marriages and other children. I struggled with my mom’s emotional and spiritual issues. But something always made this little girl long for her daddy. One winter, as a teenager, I ran away and found him in Kansas. I didn’t stay long, and I’ll share that story in another post, but it wasn’t time for us to be a permanent family yet. During that short time, though, I got to see his poetic, musical, and artistic sides. I was only gifted the ability to write poetry and sing. I’ve tried to learn an instrument, but it just never settled with me, and drawing without the help of technology never came naturally. But I love that I can see him as the DNA source of my love for words.
Somehow, that thing of finding himself oft pursued by The Lord also came to me. In my case, I was looking for deeper meaning more than a good time party, but it still filled my life with a mix of dead-ends and a few major moments with God before I willingly gave my life to Him.
As I’ve met and gotten to know my siblings, I’ve found similar stories in their life journeys. Some have finally let God catch up to them, and some are still looking for other answers. But I still call our journeys Grace by DNA because it seems we all took pieces from our shared father’s journey and made them part of our own journeys. I’ll be gathering those journey stories into a book I started back in 2020, but I’ll tell you bits and pieces here in this blog.
While writing this post, I searched and searched for the tattoo song, but I cannot find it right now, so I guess it’s not time to share it. The gist is a comparison of my father’s tattoo with the carved names in the midst of God’s palm, and it’s called Daddy Can Never Forget Me. It talks about how even if he tried to have it removed, the scar would always remind him of me, and then it talks about the nail scars in Jesus’ hands. I sent the lyrics to my dad at one point, along with a letter reminding him that God could never forget him either. He said it made him cry, and I hope it planted a seed that helped to bring him back to The Lord in his last years.
We did have some periods of distance between us through the years, just as I had times where I was distant from my Heavenly Father. But, thankfully, Dad and I didn’t give up on each other. And God never gave up on either of us as He led us to an eventual reconciliation before Dad left this world in 2021.
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Strong Enough to Grieve
Temporary! That word carries both comfort and terror. Knowing that suffering will come to an end is comforting. Knowing the pain of loss when the end comes is terrifying.
Today marks 11 years since I said goodbye to my mom for the last time. It was bittersweet because of the healing that took place between us in her final days and hours. I wanted to let her go because I didn’t want her to suffer, but I didn’t want to let her go because I finally felt like I had a mom. Both the healing and the loss changed my life in more ways than I can count.
Anyone who was reading my blog knows that I pretty much stopped writing regularly after her passing. And then more losses and pain followed in the years after that made it hard to come back. But now that I’m here, and on this death anniversary, I want to focus on the good that God provides to comfort us in a life we have little control over. One bit of comfort is in that unseen eternity that carries more hope than anything in this world could ever provide. It’s a hope that my mom is there, in the Presence of our Creator and Lord, and enjoying every pain-free moment with Him. It’s a hope that I will see her again one day. And, it’s a hope that my own eternity will be filled with all the Love and Light that is God Almighty Himself. Those unseen hopes can carry a person through many troubles in this temporary life.
So, as I’ve been waxing poetic lately, I think it’s finally time to share the poem I feel God gave me shortly after my mom’s passing. I had been saving it to submit to a publisher, but maybe someone will stop by here who really needs to read it. Many have been brought to tears by the words in these verses, and I pray it blesses at least one someone out there.
STRONG ENOUGH TO GRIEVE
By Crystal A Murray (C) 2015 All Rights Reserved
No, you weren't the kind of mom that...
Fixed my lunches,
Made my bed,
Came to school functions,
Helped me study,
Or pushed me to graduate.
You didn't help me to...
Get ready for a prom,
Plan a perfect wedding,
Or prepare for a family.
See, we didn't have a storybook life.
Not even a sitcom, really.
Alcohol and mental illness,
Along with some bad "dads" in our home,
They stole hours and days.
They stole my childhood.
And yet, I loved you.
We finally became friends.
There were still many battles,
But I was old enough to stand.
And then we both got stronger.
The love of God changed our hearts.
And His grace changed our lives.
Old things went away... mostly.
But some damage was done.
Some scars would stay,
And even hurt at times.
You were better, but not always.
I was stronger yet often weak.
Oh, but I still loved you.
When the cancer came,
I was ready to fight in prayer,
But you said you were ready to go.
And so, I came to your side.
And that's when I learned...
You were still tormented.
You battled something oppressive that neither of us could see.
Much of what I took personally and hurt from
Wasn't about me.
But I had never known that.
It was all personal to me.
My hurts were so deep,
Healing seemed impossible,
And all my memories felt painful.
But then, a new friend prayed.
God sent her to both of us.
I had been strong enough...
To do what you needed,
To prepare for your death,
And to take care of business;
But I had not been strong enough to grieve.
After our friend prayed,
she taught us how to pray.
She showed us God's words that promised victory.
And then the peace came in.
You were delivered from your torment.
And I was set free to grieve.
I found memories of good times.
I sang you heaven songs--
Many I recalled from childhood.
And you rested.
I held your hand and felt new love for you;
Love not restricted and bound...
By years of pain,
By bad memories,
Or by guilt for my imperfections as a daughter.
Real, heartfelt love.
So, finally...
I grieved freely.
As your breath slowed,
As comfort took over pain,
And as God let me get some sleep, too.
You slipped away.
And I cried.
Now I remember the good.
And though it brings me sadness,
It also sets me free
because now...
I am strong enough to grieve.
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Put Your Hand in His
I’ve gotta keep this one short, but since I talked about music yesterday, one of my favorites growing up was “Put Your Hand in the Hand” and I still love to sing it. I’ll add more about this tomorrow, but for now, enjoy this image from multiple creation sources and a video from the original performers in 1971.
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Just An Old Fashioned Love Song
I could blog for days on some of my favorite songs, both in hymns and secular music. It’s probably why I like the band, ApologetiX so much because that gives me hymns with the tunes of my secular faves. But for tonight, I want to talk about gathering with people who love The Lord and singing praises to Him. The greatest love is from God to us, so the greatest love songs should be from us to Him.
Now, when I hear the words “community hymn sing,” I’m pretty certain it’s going to be hymns sung by the whole community. I expect a “turn to page 1234” moment where we all pick up a song book and sing together. Of course, most have replaced the song books with overhead lyrics on beautiful backgrounds, but you get the idea. We all worship The Lord with good old-fashioned songs that tell of our love for Him.
But that’s not what happened when we attended the first one for our community. Instead, there were different groups playing and singing, no lyrics for the congregation, and me wondering whether it was okay to sing along. Did I enjoy it? Yes! It was all my kind of music, and most people wanted folks to sing with them. And despite not having the lyrics available, I was surprised at how many I knew by heart.
So, though both my husband and I would’ve preferred what we expected to find there, it does bring up something important. Why did I know so many of the lyrics even without them in front of my eyes? Because I’ve sung them to The Lord for so many years, they’ve become a part of me. This is what Proverbs is talking about when it says to “Train up a child in the way he should go.” It’s not a promised guarantee that a child raised to love and honor Christ will never depart, but if the practice is modeled before them and instilled in them, there’s an excellent chance that what’s been instilled will never depart. And that means, if the child grows up and grows distant from The Lord, there’s a well of memory within him or her which can be tapped into when they are ready.
I had my time of doing things my own way, but teachings and music from my own childhood were a well in me that I’ve tapped into many times since giving my whole life to Christ as a young woman. If you’ve got children, or grandchildren, or nieces and nephews (as was the case for me and my husband when we raised 4 nephews for 5 years), use every opportunity to put something into that well for them. One day, when they realize they’re running dry, what you’ve placed into them could save their soul. You’ll know it and be filled with joy when you hear them singing their own old fashioned love song to their Creator. I’m still hoping and praying for that day because I want all of us worshiping God together for eternity.
And, now, here’s one of my favorite songs from my time in Missionettes as a little girl. It’s called “Pass It On” and the lyrics can still make me cry.
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Hand in Hand with God Almighty
Sometime in the past month, I read a quote that said something like, “God is more interested in what you do with Him than in what you do for Him.” I can’t find it again now to correctly attribute it, but those words say so much to my heart. I did find a similar quote by Malcom Smith that says, “While we are in a frenzy of doing for Him, we are in grave danger of missing the whole point of the Gospel – which is being with Him… He has many servants but few friends!”
In the short video I’ve shared above from The Bible Project (I love their videos and highly recommend them), the guys animate a lesson about partnering with God in this life. When I watched it as part of one of my studies, it made me think of that quote, and the whole message has been working in my spirit.
So many religions, and even non-religious ideologies that require good deeds, have leadership (or gods) that demand allegiance in word and deed but not in any sort of relationship. People do good (and even sometimes evil in the names of their gods) to get to their future reward. And they will pay any price because they think that reward must be earned. And it works for keeping people in line with the rules, but it’s too shallow for a life with a Creator who loves His creation so deeply that He actually left His glory to suffer in the flesh to make sure we can spend eternity with Him. He absolutely wants a partnership with each of us.
Another quote states it well by saying, “When you finally realize it isn’t about cutting off sin, it’s about loving God so much that your desires for sin no longer exist.” That kind of love will bring you all the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit and His Wonderful Presence. In Deuteronomy 4;7, Moses says, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to Him?” (WEBUS) And if having that kind of close friendship and love with your Creator sounds good to you, memorize this promise from Jeremiah 29:13 (World English Bible/WEB)…
13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
And here’s an older beautiful hymn with lyrics to sing along; What A Friend We Have in Jesus…
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A Flood of Emotion
If you know any artists or writers or creators of any type, you know they can be temperamental about your reactions to their creations. I don’t watch any of those chef programs, but the previews seem to show some real volatility in recipe creators/cooks who don’t get things their way or get the reactions they hoped for. But I think we come by it honestly from being made in the image of a Creator who puts His whole heart into everything He creates.
I’m up to Day 3 in my Bible study, so the last 2 days included Genesis 4 through Genesis 11. Mankind rejected the Light and Love God gifted him in exchange for what sounded to them like a good idea. Back in Genesis 3, Eve is shown looking at the tree while thinking how it… A: Looked good for food (lust of the flesh), B: Was delightful to look at (lust of the eyes), and C: Was desirable for obtaining wisdom (pride of life). Those three sin-inducing thoughts are at the root of every temptation or sin we face.
So, they did things the human way and rejected God’s way which led to a rejection of the gifts He wanted to shower on them, such as the ability to eat from the ”Tree of Life” and live forever. It was only God’s mercy that sent them away from the tree rather than leaving them in eternal bondage to their sin.
Then came Noah, the grandson of Methuselah, who found grace in the eyes of The Lord and was rescued with his family from a flood meant to wash away all that had destroyed God’s beautiful creations. As I wrote my study comments, I used a crying emoji, and it suddenly made me think of all the flood waters as God’s tears. Can you imagine that much heartache?
But, after it was all said and done, God ached for the many lost people (and critters) washed away and buried with no chance of salvation. He placed the scientific phenomena of a colorful spectrum in the Creation sequence, so water now reflects His desire to rescue mankind with a hope of redemption and restoration.
And now, for a little fun, here’s a video by my favorite Christian parody band, ApologetiX, with their song Noah Man to the tune of Nowhere Man by ”The Beatles”.
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