In
the last few years I have been taken with the photography of Matej Peljihan –
in particular, his most recent collection, which he has titled “Le Petit
Prince.” This is, of course, the title of the famous French book, The Little
Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is the story of a pilot
and a young boy; both extremely creative. It includes some incredible
commentary on life, relationships, and the imagination.
The
photographer’s collection is photos of a 12-year-old Luke in different scenes
he has created from his imagination – much like The Little Prince. The
difference in these photos is that the boy has muscular dystrophy. Luke’s
condition restricts his movement to small hand gestures. He cannot bathe,
dress, or feed himself.
Luke
has a wonderfully active imagination and spends a great deal of his day drawing
images that he creates in his mind. The images that he draws imagine his life
if he was not bound by this wheelchair. This include swimming in the deep
ocean, playing basketball, listening to music like a normal teenager, and
skateboarding. These are his dreams, even though he is well aware that his life
will end sooner than later, and most of these dreams will never become reality.
And
then he met Matej Peljihan, the photographer.
Matej
Peljihan met the young man and saw some of his drawings of life beyond the
wheelchair. Peljihan felt a strong pull to somehow make these drawings as true
as he could make them. This required his imagination, a large white sheet, and
changing his perspective. Each scene was created by laying Luke on the sheet,
placing the appropriate props around him, and then the photographer shot the
images from an aerial view.
The
photographs are incredible. They are this beautiful juxtaposition of
imagination, creativity, dreams, and someone who was willing to try and make
another person’s dreams a reality – or, as close as they could be to a reality.
The photographs can be viewed online by simply searching the photographers name
and the photography collection, Matej Peljihan and “Le Petit Prince.” Give
yourself some time to look at the images and to be deeply moved.
To
me, this is such an incredible image of the incarnation and our calling as the
church: to take this much bigger, dream the dream of God, and to make this a
reality – or as close to a reality as we can here on our earth.
This
means being a little bit more like this incredible young man, Luke, who had the
ability to see his life beyond the limits of a wheelchair. For us, this
involves dreaming and imagining together, and not being limited by the reality
that we see around us.
This
means being a little more like the photographer Matej, who was willing to think
of taking the photographs from above the scene – to literally change his
perspective to make this reality come true. For us, this would involve
conversations about how we can help make God’s world a reality and what we have
to change to do so.
It’s
not an easy calling, but no one ever said it was (okay, some pastors have tried
to sell that idea, but their ministry did not last long).
It’s
our calling: to see the world God has imagined for us, and then to make it a
reality.
And
I have a feeling that in that world, when we finally get there, Luke is not
going to be bound by his wheelchair anymore.
May
we be so brave to imagine, to create, and to make God’s dream a reality here.
Grace
and peace,
Griff
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