A few years ago, when I was walking my favourite circuit in the Surrey Hills, one of the footpaths took me through the grounds of a private school during their lunch break. I passed two young boys playing together. One was mimicking someone shooting a pistol; feet planted two feet apart, knees bent, arms extended, hands gripped together, with his pointer fingers forming the gun’s barrel. Meanwhile his friend was crawling stealthily across the grass towards him, like a leopard stalking its prey.
As I passed them the first boy declared, “I shot you, you’re dead!” The second boy responded, “No you didn’t, I’ve got my invisible cloak on; and you can’t see me!” To which the first boy retorted, “But I’ve got my anti-invisible cloak glasses on; I can see you perfectly!”
As I listened to them at play, I was ambushed by a stream of pure joy. Their exchange had somehow taken me back half a century to the imaginary adventures of my own childhood. I remember thinking, “What fun, I wish I could join in!” before quickly dismissing such a ridiculous notion and rousing myself to my senses… But their play had stirred something within my inner child, a simple and joy-filled part of me that had previously lain dormant.
In that moment, I distinctly remember questioning when, why and how I’d lost my imaginative, playful and adventurous self? When Jesus declared to his disciples, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…” surely freedom of imagination was one of the important qualities on his mind? It’s a child’s capacity for innocent simplicity, the ability to imagine and to enter into a realm that exists beyond physical, practical and logical limitation.
Recently, I had a profoundly vivid dream about one of my favourite places in the world, New Zealand. You may find what follows difficult to imagine unless you’ve had the pleasure of acquainting yourself with her beauty. In my dream I was experiencing the land with all of my senses; smell, touch, taste, sight and hearing, even its spiritual mystic, my heart filled with joy. As I gradually stirred from my slumber, it was so authentic that I believed I was actually there!
When I later recounted the dream to a dear friend, emphasizing how vivid it was and how present I felt, he casually responded, “Perhaps you were there!” Now there’s a thought… When we sleep we are free from our logical inhibitions and practical sensibilities, free to travel where our dreams carry us, and just occasionally that place is real.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”[1]
One of the TV series that I have enjoyed whilst being grounded here in the UK is, ‘Wanted: A Simple Life.’ The host invites families on an adventure from the hustle and bustle of London to experience the simpler life of their dreams in rural and coastal locations around Britain. Thus far, destinations have included the Isle of Skye, Dorset, Sussex and my own personal favourite, Cornwall. They view sample homes that might fit within their budget, even living in one for the duration of filming. They try potential hobbies old and new, meet people who have actually made the transition towards a simpler life and then watch heart-wrenching video messages from friends and family back home who will miss them terribly should they decide to relocate. Will they dare to relinquish the familiar, embrace simplicity and enter into the dream of an alternative future?
The airing of this series couldn’t have been better timed, as recently there has been an exodus from homes in our towns and cities in favour of rural and coastal destinations. Having savored the relative quietness and freedom of working from home, many among us have discovered within ourselves an insatiable hunger for our coastlines, countryside, mountains and valleys – for creation. What the searching masses do not comprehend is that this hunger for creation is actually hunger for our Creator, He of whom creation sings. In the enforced silence and simplicity, we are once again finding our hearts. These are hearts previously paralysed and overwhelmed by noise, and now these same hearts are listening and leading us towards home. We are beginning to imagine an alternative future and beyond the lifting veil the dream is Real.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”[2]
Over time our capacity to delight in our imagination and dreams has been castrated. We’ve been discouraged by others and even by ourselves from engaging with our imagination or entering into our dreams for fear that they are misguided, self-centred or merely illusionary escapism. We’ve been condemned or constrained by voices that have declared our dreams impractical, irrational, irresponsible, selfish or financially impossible – Let me ask you, “Who told you that?”[3] Who told you that you should be ashamed of being a child, a tender ‘creative’ abiding in Dream? Who told you not to be fully alive and completely free; free to imagine, free to dream, free to adventure?
Our heavenly Father has boundless imagination, limitless dreams of alternative futures, and is ridiculously adventurous. These three creative expressions flow from unceasing Love towards intimate relationship. United, they inspire divine vision and energise New Creation.
As we are miraculously reborn through Love into our Father’s unfettered image, we too can enter into His boundless imagination and limitless dreams. Then our eyes see and our hearts open towards Divine adventure. Our place within His creativity is more real than we have ever believed. It’s time to run free with the wild stallions as they gallop across the plains of imagination, descend towards the valley of hidden dreams, adventuring up into the misty mountain peaks of His creativity.
[3] Genesis 3:11
Replenish 