Imagination

Jesus answered them, ‘How wrong you are! It is because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power. For when the dead rise to life, they will be like the angels in heaven and will not marry. Now, as for the dead rising to life; haven’t you ever read what God has told you? He said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He is the God of the living, not of the dead.’
(verses 29-32)

Read Matthew 22:23-40

Kids live in a world full of miracles and wonder. To a child, the gingerbread man is alive, stuffed tigers talk and a kiss heals all wounds. As adults we often laugh at a child’s imagination, because we’ve learnt to distinguish between what is real and the impossible. But have we lost something along the way? Kids know that their dad can do anything. They know that anything they imagine can exist.

As adults, however, we doubt the existence of anything we can’t see with our eyes or conceive with our minds. Little wonder, is it, that the Scribes that Jesus was talking to didn’t believe in life after death? They couldn’t conceive of earthly relationships continuing in eternity, it all just seemed too complex and unrealistic. They lacked the imagination to believe in a God who could do the impossible!

How foolish these learned men must have seemed, and yet how often do I say, ‘That’s impossible’? Don’t ever lose that child in you that says, ‘My dad can do the impossible!’

Heavenly Father, forgive my doubting mind and help me to trust you like a child trusts its dad. Amen.

by Robert Turnbull, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)

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