To Imagine

By definition, to "imagine" means simply to form a mental image of something.... anything, in your mind. It means, “to think,” “to expect,” “to believe,” “to suppose,” to daydream", or “to fantasize.” All you have to do to "imagine" is visualize a concept or thought.

When a person is imagining something, they can essentially imagine anything they want to. It can be good things or bad things, it can be something real and possible or something outlandish and totally make-believe. It can even be something utterly ridiculous or obscene. Whatever it is, it belongs to the person and supposedly exists in their own private realm of existence, at least until the thought it shared.

The beauty of the human imagination is that it can hold anything, literally ANYTHING, a person chooses to think of! With this in mind, it might be easy to conclude that thought and imagination is somehow, ‘only in the mind,’ and therefore it is of little or no importance to a real and tangible world, but it is worth considering that the opposite might in fact be the truth of the matter. After all, we do commonly understand that even some of the most extravagantly fanciful fantasies of mankind throughout human history have somehow come to fruition in reality. In fact, some of the greatest human inventions, some of the most inspiring tales had their origin in the mind, or more precisely, the human imagination.

Seemingly obscure and secret, a private and personal place, what is in the imagination of a person tends to bubble up to the surface from time to time. It is as if a person is like a spring or a brook, and from the waters within a man or woman out flows the creativity that wells up within their minds. It bubbles up and out from somewhere deep inside and over flows out of a person in the form of an idea. That thing at work inside, can be seen at work outside, though outside of what we think of and marvel over as creative genius, it remains somewhat a mystery.

It is mysterious indeed, but it does exist; and while we perhaps think that it only exists somewhere far away from earth in space and time, we know it is very much a part of a person in the here and now. It is a little like a personal garden where thoughts and feelings are cultivated and from the soil of the imagination, things emerge. Sometimes they emerge into the world at large.

Whether it’s a child playing with toys, or an adult manipulating symbols on a screen or mulling over the items in the closed refrigerator that one might cook with or eat, people of all shapes and size and age imagine things everyday. We imagine incredible feats of human engineering, like buildings, bridges, tools, and machines we imagine our ideas for artistic endeavors like paintings, stories, songs, music and films. Men and women, both children and adults, even madman and genius alike can and do, harness this unique and wonderful power... imagination.

So what is this mysterious power? Is it something that evolved? Is it something that one can learn or develop, something to be increased with patient practice or is it simply a matter of being human? Do other living things upon this planet... imagine?

Whatever you believe about the source of the imagination, one thing people can agree upon is that mankind, with his power to think, imagine and create, is quite unique on this planet. Some would even agree that humans are unique in the entire galaxy, perhaps even in the universal world. In the struggle to understand who we (humans) are, where we (human beings) came from and where is it that we (all of us both collectively and individually) are going, (even after death) there are many speculations, formulations and ideas. Within this mix, many people insist that human life is about much more than being a cog in a cosmic machine, they believe that people should be more, much more than a robotic entity performing repetitive functions. Humans have the power to imagine.

David, of biblical heritage, prayed...

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand, and is all thine own. I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.

O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee: And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for the which I have made provision. "

David said to all the congregation, "Now bless the LORD your God."

And all the congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshiped the LORD, and the king.

1 Chronicles 29: 16-20