Imagine the Possibilities

 

On this particular morning, I was surprised to find a zebra resting in the early sunrise. I pass this yard on every walk, so I am sure I would have noticed the zebra if it had been in that spot before today. As I paused and tried to wrap my mind around this new development, I suddenly realized that the zebra was not alone - I spied a giraffe in the shadows on the horizon. These small statues transform this very average, normal yard into the Serengeti.

I was then caught up in memories of my own childhood imaginings. My favorite adventures of the mind involved the Amazon and space travel and sailing the sea. I’ve yet to make it to South America or Mars, and I still cannot swim. But the joy of imagination is not diminished by such details.

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

It is a shame that most of us lose so much our imagination as we grow older. At some point we accept the limitations imposed on us from the outside. At some point along the way the realities of our own limitations set in and we settle into our “real” world.

But the truth is that there are things of great value beyond the “real” world, things worth imagining. The Bible speaks of imagination in these words, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived-the things God has prepared for those who love him...” In this “real” world, there are things worth imagining, things like love and peace and progress; things like justice and hope. We can imagine great things for ourselves and for others and for the world.

If we can’t imagine something, we can’t grab hold of it and make the commitment to see that something become reality. I may have never made it to the Amazon, or orbited the earth or learned to swim, but that doesn’t mean that all my imaginings remained imaginings. I also imagined getting an education. I imagined someday having a new truck. I imagined being a preacher. All of this, and more, came true. But it all started in my head and in my heart.

Let us imagine today a better world. Let us imagine a better self. Let us imagine all the possibilities for doing good that this day holds.

Peace.