Imagination....from childhood to adulthood

Growing up as a child who reading this had any trouble imagining? Why any good 6 year old can imagine flying an airplane and most children at 8 years of age can prepare a meal and set the table using nothing but their imagination. It is easy to dream about driving a truck or even setting up an office where you are writing out business cards, or as my nieces often did, they would give you a meal check for the dinner you didn’t really eat. Using proper imagination you could make noises and pretend to eat with imagination. Makes you want to go back to that age again doesn’t it? Having fun, and nothing was real except spending time playing enjoying life in first class style as a child…using your imagination.
I was reflecting about church and worship. As a child we hear the story of Jesus and we latch on, believing His love and accepting His word as truth. As adults today it appears there is a real need to return to the use of imagination as we sing songs of His love and songs of our commitment to the cause. It appears our ability to visualize how our faith is to be put into practice has been lost with our advancement in age and years of faith. You would think just he opposite would be true. Because we believe and have experiences with Him as Savior and Lord, our faith is strong, our imagination of his purpose and plan for our lives grows and we move forward with action and words.
How about the song, “He Touched Me.” What is your imagination with this song? For me, first I recall the moments and situations in my life that he has actually touched me, and as I face all of the unfolding events and situations of life my imagination kicks in and I cannot imagine a single event He can’t help me with. Think about the song, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.” When was the last time you used your imagination regarding this action? I confess it will be difficult as an adult to use your imagination of standing up against something if you’ve never had that experience. Children imagine fighting the world with stick they imagine as the most powerful weapon the world’s ever known. Children stand up fighting an enemy using their imagination because when knocked down they get back up and continue the fight even though it appeared they were just hit by the bullets of the enemy. WOW, don’t you want to be a child again? Sure we do, but it’s not necessary, we are adults and our imagination should be just fine with the successes we can experience because we walk in faith, talk in faith, and are willing to stand up for Him.
Not sure if there was ever any luster in serving Christ, but I can clearly remember some older folks of faith that didn’t seem to have any problem imagining that Jesus Christ really wants to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or even think. Why not use our imagination to believe that He does work all things out, if we would only love Him and serve Him in His purpose. Maybe it is not possible for you and I to see ourselves as salt and light to those around us even if we used our imagination. Why have we stopped believing and why have we stopped acting? I’m thinking we’ve not only lost our imagination but we’ve lost the faith we demonstrated as a child. It’s time to rediscover our inner faith as a child for these adult days.

Until then