Imagination

 

As I sat on my couch and looked out through the glass doors, my attention was captured by this image that appeared as waves washing ashore on a white sand beach. From snow to sunbathing in one day! But that was only in the imagination. What I saw was the sun reflecting off the pool onto the underside of the covering over the deck. It was mesmerizing for a moment, but then reality set in. But, for that moment, it was a little like a vacation trip to the beach.

The imagination is a powerful thing. I remember as a boy playing for hours pretending to be any number of different people. I was Loyd Bridges, diving in deep water on the television show “Sea Hunt”. At other times I was a war hero, fighting bravely as my father had in World War II. Sometimes I was my favorite University of Arkansas football player. I took more than one flight into space as an astronaut in the early years of the space program. My imagination was vivid and adventurous. It was so much fun to imagine.

But, no matter where my flights of imagination took me, I always returned to, well, me. Reality was never far away. I was no deep sea diver, I couldn’t even swim. I’m not particularly brave or athletic. I never made it to space; I never even rode on an airplane until I was in college. But as the years have rolled past, I have discovered that reality hasn’t been too bad. I have met a lot of people, experienced a lot of things and amassed a few funny stories along the way. All in all, reality has been quite the adventure.

We read in the Letter to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” When we look at life from this perspective, it makes reality more than our imagination could conceive. The one who loved us enough to give their all for us now lives in us. We can see through the eyes of Jesus. We can act out of the heart of Jesus. We can follow God’s leading in our lives by the discerning spirit of Jesus. That is a reality better than all our imaginings. That is an adventure second to none.

Peace.