Last night at dinner Ezekiel took his egg roll. He carefully inserted one and then the other chopstick. Then the egg roll lifted off the table, with wings to fly, it raced across the sky.
His little voice added the jet engines rocket (he knows more sound effects than words) and imagination took flight. It only ended when we realized he was about to literally test if chopstick wings create enough lift for an egg roll fuselage…
In my egg roll I saw food. Ezekiel saw adventure. And I wish I had the same vision. Not that I want to miss a meal, but I want to see every moment as potentially epic.
God created so many wonderful things. So many colors even Crayola can’t name them all — how bland if our colors were limited to even Crayola’s biggest box of crayons? So many creatures that swim and fly and wiggle — things wildly different and yet similar enough that in grade school I cut open an earth worm and learned about my own body. So many plants growing in every place — their next generation is tastily encased in food. So many stars glowing in the night — often with planets orbiting, worlds unknown until the last few generations.
Our wonder over creation helps us understand a part of God. Far from bland, the world is diverse and splendid. God took time and care to make this world wonderful. Then urged us to discover it, to name it. To know that it is good.
More than that, our creator was not content with the original plethora. So imagination was created. With this we could envision even more possibilities. We could build whole worlds in our minds. We could see our way to places unknown, then step out to make the impossible reality. Not just toward the stars, but to make humanity’s world new.
Too often we are content to use our imagination selfishly. We rehash old conversations with clever responses. We picture the evening dinner or play spend Powerball winnings. Our mind’s eye lives out a new job or dreams of summer on winter days. Sometimes it deteriorates into a lust for power/possessions/people but most often it is harmless pondering.
Yet God wants our imagination to take flight beyond ourselves. To contemplate for our spouse – what would please them? To envision a better moment for our kids or our church. To dream the boldest dreams for our world – to join MLK and Ghandi and Lincoln and John.
I know God laughs when Ezekiel imagines if egg rolls can fly (and, I suspect, God also hopes the passengers do not get hungry during the flight!). God also rejoices when when we let our imaginations soar. Not sinking toward our own end, but rising up to make the world a place where all may say “It is good.”
God calls through our imagination – even the impossible dreams. The voice urges us to name it – to act the dream into reality. So today let your imagination take flight to bless someone else. Big or small make imagination real.
PLUNGE47 