I just finished reading a fantasy where I encountered magical creatures, unfamiliar wonders, epic battles, and revelations of transcendent truths. It opened a door into a world I have not traveled nor believed in till now. But more notably it made me think about God and what it would be like to be Him.

At once, in this new discovery, I struggled to step outside the frame of human perspective, but realized I could still imagine things. I’m not thinking about things possible, but the impossible, even more the divine. I know intellectually that things which appear to be accidental can be things designed, even matters like the distinction between a sunday drive and marriage can be linked. If we think hard the missing pieces can be imagined, the author helped me here. The author likewise showed me that is easier to see divine linkage in hindsight.

I have hurried to understand the images, the meaning, the processes of God’s plan for my present and future life. He has not made this too hard. His word, the orthodoxy of creeds, even the Holy Spirit are all here to guide me.

However, I do not here want to consider His revealed character. I shall rather imagine with effort what it means to be God in an imaginative sense. I do this not to transcend His will, because I cannot. I do it because I know whatever I can imagine He can do as long as it does not offend His character. I wish to explore things like “can He fly?” (Of course He can!). I ask, has he made worlds other than our own? Maybe! But could He? Of course, He’s God! Simple right? What about the angels? Are they transported into our lives by His command or do they just act on our behalf because they love Him; a sort of desire followed by duty.

When I read a good science fiction story I think , ” Wow, the author is so creative. His imaginations are so incredibly infeasible, except if he were God himself this could never happen.” I think, “but God can you make me fly? What is impossible for you?” Have you made a cave I follow to the center of the earth? Are the clouds bright yellow on Venus? Is the grass blue? Are there floating islands? Perhaps Lewis’s Perelandra is more than mental imagery? Could it have been a true noumenon, an imagined phenomenon revealed to only one man, authored in time, written as a fictional fantasy? What stops the Lord from giving to one person a gift that expresses an unknowable world? I think we call this Eden. Is Perelandra really a fantasy? What is Venus really like anyway? What stops you Lord from giving to me a recreative imagination? The ability to experience or think about the world or worlds from a different perspective, different from the perspective of everybody else or most everybody, and different from the perspectives that are practical and reasonable; what the world presents to us? Some call such thoughts the experiences or the wishes of a madman! The Apostle John should be called a “madman” today. And Christians madmen for believing the vision written in Revelations.

The whole idea that God is so much bigger than even a transcendent imagination blows my mind!

Think about art! What artist is greater than God? Can the painter create works equal to the real thing? Just imagine what real things are yet to be created by God? He is limitless! Can He run out of ideas? Ok, I’m impressed by many artists, certain artists. But when I think of God I can only thank Him for giving those artists the ability to imagine things outside the framework of my simple mind, and the skill to pull off the duty to express them. I have learned imagination is not a fools errand, it is a gift, but not a limitless one. All magnificence, all beauty, all renoun, all honor must then go to God; I can only be one through which He is honored. I can hardly imagine Him; I cannot be Him! It is much easier to believe in Him!

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