Blank pages

So, after five days working with children in Haiti, some orphans and some poor and all in need of some adult attention, I am rattled by the universal blank page.  After reading Bible stories and  discussion, a little music and fun, I handed out paper to the children and markers or crayons and asked them to draw what is most important to them. The blank pages remained blank as they stared at me in bewilderment, and those blank canvases, their response to dreams and passions, identity and purpose, are haunting me now.  After some encouragement, I was able to help the children draw self-portraits, stick figures regardless of age, and most of them drew a careful flower and perhaps a Haitian flag.  Imagination and liberation are so intertwined.  I pray that the children are given opportunities to dream about their potential.  It is not possible to live into a vision when their is simply a blank page.