the God of Imagination
My friend and companion in weekly Bible study Rielly McLaren posted this on his blog recently. I liked it, so I thought I'd share it with you:
...........
The imagination is a pathway to knowing God, because it inspires wonder inside us. The imagination leads to wonder, wonder inevitably leads to knowingGod, and knowing God leads to knowing the One True Story we are a part of, even in this very moment.
The greatness of a story can be measured by how much it inspires you to be a part of the One True Story you find yourself in.
At the beginning of Lady In the Water, the comment is made, "Mankind has forgotten how to listen", which is the essence of the plot for the film. We have forgotten how to listen, and it is even reflected in people's responses to the film. We do not know how to listen or perceive. The arts, especially stories, can be an avenue to spark the hearts and minds of people who are open and looking for truth, which contain wonder and God.
You may think I am just speaking mumbo-jumbo, and loose speculation; but to those of you who would call yourselves Christians, let me ask you...why did Jesus speak in parables so often? What was the purpose? Why stories?
...Because he cared about speaking to people who wanted to learn how to listen again.
"He who has ears, let him hear" I remember Jesus saying. "Listen closely," he says, "or because of your hard heart you may not perceive what I am really saying."
I have seen that the older we get, the more wonder we lose. We begin to see life as more predictable, we become more desensitized, we need more sensory injection to be thrilled. Can you appreciate a good story among friends, or is it all about one-upmanship? Can you sit in a theater and allow your imagination free reign without constant explosions, special effects, and airbrushed abnormal humans? At the same time, do you struggle through the parables of Jesus, or would you rather have Jesus spell it out for you? Is the connection a coincidence?
What does it mean to become child-like in our faith? Does it have to do with regaining wonder? Is a sunset boring to you, and something about a mustard seed make no sense? G.K. Chesterton said that he learned more sitting in a Sunday school class watching children play, then he did in all his graduate studies combined.
Paul said, "To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..."
If we have no imagination, the God we perceive will be small; but if our imagination is big, how immensely immeasurable will God's imagination be seen to be?
..........
Read the whole post here.
...........
The imagination is a pathway to knowing God, because it inspires wonder inside us. The imagination leads to wonder, wonder inevitably leads to knowingGod, and knowing God leads to knowing the One True Story we are a part of, even in this very moment.
The greatness of a story can be measured by how much it inspires you to be a part of the One True Story you find yourself in.
At the beginning of Lady In the Water, the comment is made, "Mankind has forgotten how to listen", which is the essence of the plot for the film. We have forgotten how to listen, and it is even reflected in people's responses to the film. We do not know how to listen or perceive. The arts, especially stories, can be an avenue to spark the hearts and minds of people who are open and looking for truth, which contain wonder and God.
You may think I am just speaking mumbo-jumbo, and loose speculation; but to those of you who would call yourselves Christians, let me ask you...why did Jesus speak in parables so often? What was the purpose? Why stories?
...Because he cared about speaking to people who wanted to learn how to listen again.
"He who has ears, let him hear" I remember Jesus saying. "Listen closely," he says, "or because of your hard heart you may not perceive what I am really saying."
I have seen that the older we get, the more wonder we lose. We begin to see life as more predictable, we become more desensitized, we need more sensory injection to be thrilled. Can you appreciate a good story among friends, or is it all about one-upmanship? Can you sit in a theater and allow your imagination free reign without constant explosions, special effects, and airbrushed abnormal humans? At the same time, do you struggle through the parables of Jesus, or would you rather have Jesus spell it out for you? Is the connection a coincidence?
What does it mean to become child-like in our faith? Does it have to do with regaining wonder? Is a sunset boring to you, and something about a mustard seed make no sense? G.K. Chesterton said that he learned more sitting in a Sunday school class watching children play, then he did in all his graduate studies combined.
Paul said, "To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..."
If we have no imagination, the God we perceive will be small; but if our imagination is big, how immensely immeasurable will God's imagination be seen to be?
..........
Read the whole post here.
posted by Rachel Starr Thomson at 9:18 p.m.
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