{"id":461,"date":"2007-08-10T06:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-10T06:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane--child-prodigy.html"},"modified":"2007-08-10T06:52:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-10T06:52:00","slug":"akiane-child-prodigy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html","title":{"rendered":"Akiane&#8211; Child Prodigy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Where does vision come from?   Vision to paint, or to write, to sing or to play.  Some folks think it is a natural talent that some people are just born with.   But if that is true, then why couldn&#8217;t it simply be inherited from a gifted parent?  Others think it is a matter of developing a skill over time, and of course it is true that we get better at things through hard work and repetition,  but this does not plumb the depths of what happens in the case of a prodigy.   Consider for example the case of Akiane,  now 10.   She&#8217;s been painting and writing poetry since she was very small.  She did not learn this at school, or for that matter at home either.   Here is the link:<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/video.google.com\/videoplay?docid=635393838881461415&amp;q=child+prodigy<\/p>\n<p>(if you have trouble with the link, then go to Google Video and type in Akiane)<\/p>\n<p>Having watched this, several things are evident.  Here is a young girl who had a strong sense of God&#8217;s presence and where her gift came from at a very early age.  Notice what she says at the end of the video about God and Christ being there with her from the cradle.   Equally interesting is her description of getting images and visions in her head to paint. Notice that she is painting what she has images of in her head, not from images she sees in the natural world.  The ancients would call such a person a visionary.<\/p>\n<p>I have to say I can relate to a story like this.  There has been many times when a vivid dream would wake me up in the middle of the night, and I would have to go and write a poem, or something else.  And there is a strong feeling that I will have no peace unless I get this out there, and out of my system.<\/p>\n<p>There is now a fair bit of literature about Indigo Children, so-called because they are said to see a blue aura around the dreams or visions they have of things.  I can&#8217;t really speak to this, as I have not seen things that way,  but this I am prepared to say.  As Romans 1 suggests, we are all created in the image of God, and as such have a capacity not only for relationship with God, but to receive gifts from God.  Some people are more aware and open to this than others, and some are fairly oblivious to it.   There is in addition a harding that happens to people over time as they become more worldly wise and weary, and lose their innocence.  Sin does this to people&#8211; it deadens them to God and to receiving spiritual gifts.  This is one of the reasons when we see a child prodigy it becomes more evident that this is not a learned skill but must come from somewhere else. Of course an excellent example of this is Mozart, whose life story is worth reading.<\/p>\n<p>So watch the Akiane video and perhaps some of the related segments.  You can find this video on U Tube as well, of course.  And then lets have a conversation about this.   Now you will notice as well, that the way this gifting is interpreted varies, depending on the religious background of the people (or lack there of). Thus one family talks about reincarnation of previous family members in their children, and so on.   Here is where I say that people can have genuine gifts from God, but misinterpret their source, meaning, and purpose.   And indeed it is also possible to have &#8216;gifts&#8217; from sources other than God,  from demonic sources unfortunately.   This is why spiritual knowledge and discernment is necessary in such cases.   But with Akiane I have no reservations about where her gifts are coming from.  She seeks to honor the Lord in all she does.<br \/>Now here is the surprise.  This video was sent to me by a close friend of mine from Turkey,  who grew up a secular Moslem (as are many Turks).  She came with me to Israel the last time I went, and asked to be baptized by me in the Jordan, and receive communion for the first time, professing her belief in Jesus.   God has been doing some things in her life, and thus she sent this video along to me.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where does vision come from? Vision to paint, or to write, to sing or to play. Some folks think it is a natural talent that some people are just born with. But if that is true, then why couldn&#8217;t it simply be inherited from a gifted parent? Others think it is a matter of developing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Akiane- Child Prodigy - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Akiane- Child Prodigy - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where does vision come from? Vision to paint, or to write, to sing or to play. Some folks think it is a natural talent that some people are just born with. But if that is true, then why couldn&#8217;t it simply be inherited from a gifted parent? Others think it is a matter of developing&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-10T06:52:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Akiane- Child Prodigy - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Akiane- Child Prodigy - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"Where does vision come from? Vision to paint, or to write, to sing or to play. Some folks think it is a natural talent that some people are just born with. But if that is true, then why couldn&#8217;t it simply be inherited from a gifted parent? Others think it is a matter of developing&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2007-08-10T06:52:00+00:00","author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html","name":"Akiane- Child Prodigy - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-08-10T06:52:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-08-10T06:52:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2007\/08\/akiane-child-prodigy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Akiane&#8211; Child Prodigy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}