Imagination

In my Father’s house are many dwelling places . . . —John 14:2

Pity the person who has little or no imagination! Many years ago I knew a woman who said to me that she would not meditate because that took imagination and she feared imagination might carry her to places God would not want. Yet Jesus in this passage is asking his disciples to use their imagination. We might paraphrase Jesus’ words by saying that the disciples had trusted this room for their existence; how much more might they trust God for the next.

Many of you have heard me talk about this incredible universe. We live in a solar system most of us cannot imagine. Yet this is but one of thousands of solar systems. Try as we might we can’t even imagine the place in which we now dwell. Of imagination William Blake writes: Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow . . . In other words, this world is but a canvas to our imagination [for something greater] (Thoreau).

This God-given gift of imagination, at least for me, trumps logic every time. Einstein said Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. It is impossible to gain a full appreciation of the Psalmist without using imagination. He frequently compares God’s mercy and steadfast love to the depth of an ocean or the height of the very heavens themselves. When he speaks of yearning for God’s presence as in a dry and thirsty land, imagination lets us feel the parchedness of our souls without God’s presence (Psalm 63:1).

Have you ever heard someone say in frustration, Use your imagination! It is what this passage of scripture says to those gathered at the graveside of one they have loved: Use your imagination! To those who think that there is no God because God does not seem logical, the universe around us says: Use your imagination! To those who long for life to be consistent, we hear the poet tell us that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Take a break today, if only for a little while, and use your imagination. Try to fathom what rests beyond the skin of this universe and celebrate the vastness of God. Try to imagine a yellow as vibrant as the daffodil. Try to imagine a place of beauty where you love to go, then in your imagination go there and let God share it with you. Use your imagination—it can be God’s treasured gift of himself to us.

Prayer God whose imagination does exceed my own, I give you thanks for the spark of imagination that disturbs this sleepy clod. Lift me for a moment today beyond what I see to what is possible because of your matchless grace in Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana