I am constantly amazed by my children’s imaginations. They are always seeing things that I don’t see, and hearing things that I don’t hear. For instance, just the other night, Jonathan was certain that the shadows in his room were a dragon that was going to eat him. Nevertheless, the boy survived the night although he did use his sword a few times to stab the shadows, I mean…dragon.
Children do bring a different perspective on things don’t they? Lately, I have really enjoyed seeing the world through the eyes of my children. They are amazed at the beauty and ugliness, good and bad, holy and evil of things, and they often react to all of these things differently than I do. Why have most adults lost our sense of wonder? Why have we lost our sense of imagination? Many of us could learn something from the mind of a child.
Jesus himself said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). There is something about the humility and wonder that is exhibited by a child, that our Lord Jesus said that we must emulate if we are to enter his Kingdom. Repentance of sin, and belief in his life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and eventual return on our behalf is necessary to enter the kingdom of God, but I believe that Jesus was also telling us something else about what it means to walk with him as our King.
If you think about it, we must necessarily use our imagination and sense of wonder as blood bought, redeemed sinners, in a renewed relationship with God. We see this in Scripture when the psalmist sang that the Lord makes the clouds his chariot and rides upon the wings of the winds (Psalm 104:3). Clearly, the psalmist was using his imagination as He reflected on the glory of God.
When was the last time you were amazed by the beauty of God’s rain clouds, or the fierceness of a lightning strike that He created? When is the last time that you imagined Satan to be a ravenous wolf seeking to devour you? When is the last time that you remembered that you serve a Warrior King, whose name is Jesus? This Warrior dealt Satan a death blow on His cross, and Jesus will one day return to finish off that ravenous hound of hell. Then, the redeemed will live together forever in the City of God, which “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). I can just imagine it now, and I know that our children can.
