Two days ago, I interacted with people with imagination. Namely, the directors, producers and music composer of the movie How to Train Your Dragon and the author of The Little Prince written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.
How can I deny that they are not people with imagination? Dreamworks makes the things that they dream into works and a hat can be seen as a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. That's the beauty of fiction, I suppose. Yes, we either say that or call them crazy. However, either way I think we will end up with a silly grin on our faces.
There's just this mystery with what God gives us. He gives us dreams in our sleep but I am quite sure he does not want us to day-dream in school or work. He is probably suggesting that we have time for everything and he told us about the parameters (somewhere). Just as there is a time to weep, laugh, mourn and dance, there is a time to dream and a time to snap out of it.
That being said, as Christians we need to exercise our imagination. If that's the answer, the question will probably be this: why did the bible call us to sing new songs? (Psalms 33:3, 96:1...)
Consider what Pastor John Piper said.
I say that imagination is a Christian duty for two reasons. One is that you can't apply Jesus' golden rule without it. He said, "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them" (Matthew 7:12). We must imagine ourselves in their place and imagine what we would like done to us. Compassionate, sympathetic, helpful love hangs much on the imagination of the lover.
The other reason I say that imagination is a Christian duty is that when a person speaks or writes or sings or paints about breathtaking truth in a boring way, it is probably a sin. The supremacy of God in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing world are observed truly, analyzed duly, and communicated boringly. Imagination is the key to killing boredom. We must imagine ways to say truth for what it really is. And it is not boring. God's world - all of it - rings with wonders. The imagination calls up new words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new connections to say old, glorious truth. Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful.
This probably speaks to me (and I know there are people out there who think that I am just a super boring guy, which I actually don't deny so I do not bother to convince them that I am not even if I am not). If I am trying to imagine, then I probably am not trying hard enough. I really need to use my brain more in this aspect. The problem is, how? God, please teach me how.
* Hiccup, Can I take a ride on your Toothless? I'd love to fly Night Fury Airlines.
* Oh, and little prince, would you like to meet my shepherd? He is the best.
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