Faith & Imagination

At the age of 34 I read a lot more children's books and watch more children's television and movies than I ever did as a child. This certainly has something to do with the fact that I have five children, but even more than that, I love these stories more than I ever have. I love these fictional characters and worlds, the wonder within that they inspire, and even the lessons that they are still teaching me.

Yesterday I read a quote over at the blog of Trevin Wax regarding the mind of C.S. Lewis. You can click the link for the full quote, but the main idea of the writer was that above all, C.S. Lewis had a mind that was willing to be enchanted. In the comments of the blog one commenter posted that, "Perhaps C.S.Lewis wanted to stimulate our imaginations so that we could begin to understand the possibilities of a better world than this?"

All of this got me thinking...What is the relationship between imagination and faith? Is there one?

I tend to think there is, but where the two meet, I'm not sure. Is this partially what Jesus was speaking of when he told us that we must 'receive the Kingdom of God like a child...'? Could it be that one of the key components of our faith is our imaginations? Could it be that one of the greatest things for our faith is to understand that we don't have God all figured out, therefore we read about him, and imagine what he must be like...dreaming and longing for the day when things that we can scarcely imagine will actually happen? When one day, the things we dream of will become a reality? Perhaps our imaginations and dreams won't even hold a candle to the reality of what is, and what will be.

Most people tend to think that a healthy imagination is best left to our childhood...But what if, nothing is more important to our lives as adults, and our lives as children of God, than that we never cease to use our imagination? What if allowing our imagination to grow as our faith grows is the most important thing of all? What if the point of faith, is to mold our imaginations to a reality that is better than anything we could have ever imagined?