I believe that we are most like our Creator when we are creative. The Bible says that God imagined the entire universe and then it came to pass. His thoughts became our reality. And we have all been imprinted with that same seal of creativity, to be used for good or evil, in powerful ways that can influence people and alter history.
The reason you have this gift is because God imagines. And God gave you the ability to create with your imagination. When you use your imagination for good and for God, God smiles.
Everything starts with imagination. Nothing becomes reality unless somebody thinks of it. Every great business, every great company, every piece of art, every musical note all have one thing in common: somebody imagined it before it became reality. Nothing happens unless somebody imagines it.
And yet like every gift that our Creator has given us, it can also be corrupted by evil. Our imaginations can create horrible worlds, terrible, monstrous realities, that can consume our hearts and minds. Imagination is a powerful tool that depending on the hands and mind of the one who welds it, can bring forth great good or terrible evil. That is why the Bible stresses the importance of ruthlessly guarding that pathways to our hearts and souls.
"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23) The Hebrew translation of guard means to keep above all keepings. So, above ALL you guard – your marriage, family, bank account, passwords, your car or house – guard your heart with more vigilance than anything else. We must learn what it feels like to be protected by God’s peace, and then fight to maintain that position, to guard our hearts from idolatry because the world and its ways want to crowd God out of our hearts.
The value of God's gift of imagination to us, in my opinion, is hard to quantify. In some ways our faith is also built on the power of our imagination - not that God Himself has to be imagined, but the hope of a future surrounded by His promises is guarded by the thoughts in our hearts.
I've often tried to imagine the world that we will occupy for eternity, not this prelude to our existence, but the dimension of eternity that we were truly designed to live in, forever and ever. The adventure, the fellowship, the unparalleled joys and happiness, a world without boundaries, creativity finally unleashed, an existence devoid of evil and pain, filled with hope and courage and gratitude. And most of all a world where we will always be physically present with our Creator, never to be absent from His presence again.
Can you see it?
