Don't ignore your imagination - it leads to wisdom.

Don't ignore your imagination - it leads to wisdom.

C.S. Lewis in his book The Four Loves writes about the Greek word storge which is defined by our English word affection. To the Greeks this word meant affection, especially from parents to offspring and offspring to parents. The world over knows that there is a unique and special love in this relationship. But then Lewis, as he almost always does, draws an image. He writes, "The image we must start with is that of a mother nursing a baby, a bitch or a cat with a basketful of puppies or kittens; all in a squeaking, nuzzling heap together; punings, lickings, baby-talk, milk, warmth, the smell of young life."

The image draws us not only to a greater grasp of the truth of the word but also adds to it our own sensory experiences. We recently had a batch of kittens at the apartment house that I and my wife live in and there was definitely all of those things. I can remember the smell of my daughter when she was a newborn and the deep feelings of affection and protection that I had for her. And almost all of us know the experience of the love of a mother. These images excite our imagination and the word becomes more meaningful.

Someone can say, "Can you imagine that?" And whatever "that" is will immediately get your imagination to work. You may reply with, "no," "yes," or "kind of." Some of it depends on experience and some depends on whether the image is real or not. "Can you imagine what it is like to be God?" The answer has to be no. Storge is real and almost all of us have experienced it, and so, when the word is brought to our attention and we are asked, "Can you imagine that?" we reply, yes. Because it is real and I can imagine it, the word gains a very sound meaning. When I understand its meaning, then I can think of abstract things that deal with the word, which are things I haven't ever experienced. Let's say a man grew up with a loving but single mother. His father died when he was young. But through his understanding of storge from his mother, he can imagine the love of a father and he can even reason about in what ways his life would have been different had he had such a father. Imagination brings meaning to words and true meaning brings reason to the mind, soul, and heart.  

Meanings must be established. In essence all words and language are to some extent metaphorical. A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word of phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another. A word is just a bunch of characters but it refers to something, but not only to one thing, and so all words are somewhat metaphorical. What is truth? It's a five letter word that refers to a very real substance that only has one source - God. And since mankind cannot behold God in His true and perfect essence the word actually comes to mean the person who revealed God to man, the One that we can actually behold - Jesus Christ. When Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He was technically using metaphors, but in this case the metaphors are real and alive. JOH 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

JOH 1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

COL 2:9 For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

1JO 1:1-3 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life —  and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —  what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also

"Word" has meaning as being God Himself. JOH 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In other words, the words and their meanings that make up the truths and their meanings emanate from God alone. So then if we are going to attach any real meaning to the words and the truth, we have to relate them to the very real and living Son of God, Jesus Christ, the God-Man. If we fail to do this then it is like trying to understand storge love without any reference at all to a parent and a child - it completely loses its meaning.

Many believe imagination and reason to be opposites that can never come together. The scientist, mathematician, philosopher stand on the side of reason with their cold and logical arguments and the artist, story teller, and dreamer stand on the side of imagination with their irrational, interpretive work. But we must remember that Christianity, truth, is in fact a story. It is an historical fact but it is still a story. The Son of God before the incarnation, the virgin birth, the life of Christ, the crucifixion, and resurrection all excite our imaginations because they are beautiful and inspiring and sublime, and most of all, because they tell a very real story. They fill our imaginations with things that we knew of, like love and sacrifice. These things we knew of, but when they were excited within us by Christ we found that we didn't know near as much about them as we thought we had. But in Christ we began to probe the depth of them because the very source of truth concerning these words were in fact in Him. They were and are Him, and they are alive and real in Him. So then I can say that I know exactly and distinctly what the words truth, love, sacrifice, joy, service, etc. really mean and that leads me to reason. I can apply the real meaning of these terms to my personal life in things that I have before experienced and even in things that I have never experienced. That is the function of reason. But this is not human reason or rationality. It is not that because it is based on the real source of the truth of the words, which is not man, but God in the flesh. This is why the mythology of paganism doesn't produce reason. It is full of imagination and imagery but it is based upon things that are false. Some of the things within them are true but the source is false and so no real reason comes from it. Paganism is based on human reason and so it gives no real guide to real life.

Let's take for example what God purposed to do for us through Christ. God delivered up Christ for us all. My imagination gets filled with words and terms like "great gift," "undeserved," "supreme sacrifice," and "for me." Because it really happened these terms and more like them become keenly real in their meanings and then I can reason on some very helpful things, as Paul helps us do: ROM 8:27 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

So then imagination and reason actually depend upon one another, but imagination comes first. I say again, reason depends on imagination. And I would venture to say that imagination, when it comes from the things of the person of Christ is based entirely on faith. By faith I believe the virgin birth and then, and only then, does it excite my imagination. The person who rejects the virgin birth as untrue nonsense has no imagination about it at all and so it has no meaning to him and he cannot apply it to the reason in his soul. There is no imagination without faith and no reason without imagination. Faith begins the journey to true wisdom which goes beyond knowledge only. The ones who have only knowledge have no faith or imagination and so their knowledge doesn't produce in them anything real or alive, like a close and personal walk with Christ, it only fills their heads with facts and figures and usually with great arrogance.

So never diminish or put away your imagination. It is part of the path to true wisdom. If it is based on a false source then it will lead you to bad reason but if it is based on the person and work of Christ then words such as truth, sacrifice, love, joy, sanctification, righteousness, etc. become alive and filled with meaning, and when that is true, then you can walk in the reason of God and so apply the perfect meanings of these words to your entire life.

I want to thank the late C.S. Lewis for his tremendous insight into this subject.

Love to all in Him,

Pastor Joe Sugrue

Grace and Truth Ministries