Little is said about the imagination in Christianity. The impression is given that it doesn't even exist; if it does exist, very little is ever said about it. I think the reason for that is the root itself--IMAGINE. The word itself provokes the idea of pretend, playtime, not real. Christians as a whole aren't comfortable with that. We are concerned with reality: a book that IS the word of God, the God-man who walked the earth and did genuine miracles in space-time, living a life that is true to our calling. When those issues are considered, "pretend" is edged out of the reality scene rather quickly.
Yet, we have done a disservice to ourselves. A child cannot learn without pretending. Great literature would disappear. The parables of Jesus could easily have been created in his mind and had no bearing on a specific person or event. Science would suffer horribly. Naturally the word "pretend" isn't used. It's rephrased in a more clever way, such as when a scientist will ask himself, "What if ..." Ahhh, "what if," the key that unlocks Alice's Wonderland.
When I read Scripture I will frequently asked, "What if this word weren't used ... would it have made a difference if Jesus had said this before or after this event ... etc, etc." I hate to break the news, but that's imagination at work.
Often the imagination of others can change us. It certainly happened to me. When we need help, the Lord can supply real fish and bread or imaginary fish and bread. It depends on what we need. The 5,000 needed the real deal; there was a time in my life I needed the pretend.
As a young boy, I had a terrible stammer, and stuttering was as natural for me as for a bird to sing. I'd get locked on a syllable and would strain and stammer for 15 seconds. When I finally got it out, I was gasping for air as if I'd been underwater too long. I would have been in grade school in the early 1950's, and there wasn't anything to do about it. Some kids stuttered, and that was the end of it. At that time I remember my grandparents and mom describing my talk as "dutchy."
I do recall being sent to speech therapy in the 1st or 2nd grade, but it is so vague and fuzzy. I certainly do not remember improvement.
The real change occurred sometime before the 6th grade. I was watching Saturday cartoons, and Looney Tunes typically ended with Porky Pig stuttering, "Tha ... tha ...that's all folks." For some reason that caught my attention one day. As the cartoons continued I noticed that when Porky would get stuck on a syllable, he would substitute a different word and continue on. For instance, he'd say, "Let's take the ca ... ca ... ca ... Let's take the auto and go."
For some reasons I had a decent vocabulary for my age and a quick mind, and I decided to give that a try. I don't know about other stutterers, but I could tell when it would happen. I knew I would stammer on a word that was in my thinking and on the slide from the mind to the mouth. Like bare skin on a slide, I just knew I'd be sliding part way, stopping, sliding, stopping ... and eventually get to the end of the slide. Or in my case, the word would finally come out.
When I could tell I was going to stammer, I'd pause and think of another word. And it worked! Over time the pauses became so slight that the hesitations were not particularly noticed by others. I have taught Bible from Sunday school and the pulpit for a number of years. When I'd mention my stuttering problem, people seemed surprised, "I didn't know you stuttered." In fact, even to this day I have to use the technique several times a week. In my mind I'm jumping through alternate words; to others, I'm simply having a short pause.
Alzheimers is very rife in my family. Who knows if I'll get it. If I do, most likely my stammering will return tour de force. My only consolation, if that happens, is that I won't know it's happening.
To return to the topic, imagination is at the root of learning, understanding reality, and moving beyond the confines that we place upon ourselves. Sometimes a breakthrough will occur. Newton could say, "Thank you, Apple Tree." I can say, "Thank you, Porky Pig." Yet all of us can really say, "Thank you, Lord, for giving a means to transcend the material and mundane world that we live in. Thank you for our imaginations."
Really now, who would have dreamed that Porky Pig could have cured stuttering? Move over King's Speech. You have a contender. Give the Oscar to the Pig.
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