God showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple of God. Jeremiah 24:1 (MSG)

God is Creator. God is creative. God expresses Himself endlessly in what He’s created and what He continues to create.

We are made in the image of the Creator. We are children of the Creator. We are creative. We express ourselves in our words, thoughts, and our actions; Made in the image of the Creator, we express ourselves in what we create.

It is no wonder that word pictures and metaphors are such powerful tools of communication.

Take a message and say it plainly: The best and brightest are going into exile, and they will flourish. Those left are rotten, and will be thrown out as useless. The message is simple and straightforward enough. But, then you wrap it in a word picture: Look at the figs in those baskets. Make the connection. See the ripe, tasty, figs. Those are the exiles. See the rotten, moldy, maggoty figs. Those are the rulers left in Jerusalem. Now the message takes on new depth and power because we’ve wrapped it in new layers of understanding. In the figs we can visualize the contrast between ripe and rotten. The lesson now has texture. We can taste it. We can small the rotteness of the bad figs. In the word picture, the message gains communicative power.

The best communicators are those who understand the power of word pictures; They wield metaphor like master craftsmen. If you’re struggling to express yourself, the key is to find the right word picture for your message.