Imagine That

I have a great imagination! When I was a kid the 2 little girls I played with in my neighborhood were Karen Tagner and Frances Elvington. As you know it's always hard to have three girls, one is usually left out. This was the case for me. Mrs. Tagner and Mrs Elvington were not very fond of my mother so they would take their feelings out on me. Mrs. Elvington bought Frances a beautiful doll house. One of those that you can stand up to play with. It was three stories high complete with furniture in every room. There was a little family a pet and a car in the garage.

I was so excited when Frances told me about it and couldn't wait to get home from school to play at her house with her and Karen. To my horror Mrs. Elvington decided I was not allowed in the yard where the new awesome doll house was placed. I was not nearly as cool as this doll house so Karen and Frances would play for hours together with me sitting across the street watching. In comes my imagination.

My father owned a nursery when I was growing up so there were rows and rows and rows did I mention rows of trees in our very big yard. I would play for hours in the nursery pretending I was a school teacher and the rows of trees were my students. I would talk to them and tell them to get in line or do their homework, you know all the things one would say to a shrub I mean student. I remember one day overhearing my father say to my mother “what the hell is wrong with that kid? She's out there talking to the trees again!” This explains a lot doesn't it :)

I could turn an ordinary couch into a ship on an ocean filled with sharks. I would to jump from one piece of furniture to the next so I wouldn't be eaten alive!!!

I had lots of brothers and sisters in my imaginary world and it goes without saying I was the favorite child. I also gave myself a different name. If your going to be imaginary you need to go all the way. My name was Sandy.

I wondered as I was writing this why I named myself that. I didn't even know a
Sandy. I decided to look up the meaning of that name on Google and this what I found.

Gender: Female

Origin: Greek

Meaning: Defender Of Mankind

That's a bit prophetic.

On different occasions I imagined I was a ballerina or singer. If you have ever seen me dance or sing you know what a stretch that is.

Watch any group of kids and they can be anything from a super hero to a ninja in minutes. They can be an animal, a truck, a doctor even a Snuffleupagus. Little kids have such great imaginations I think that's probably one of the reasons God loves child like faith. Children have no limits to their possibilities when they are imagining. What freedom.

Something I found when I googled. I like to Google.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination

When children develop fantasy they play at two levels: first, they use role playing to act out what they have developed with their imagination, and at the second level they play again with their make-believe situation by acting as if what they have developed is an actual reality that already exists in narrative.

They act out what they developed like it's real.

Warning: this can be a good or bad thing depending on what you imagine. I imagined it would be a great idea to drive a car through this huge mound of snow the snow plows made. In my mind I saw the fluffy white snow softly falling all around us, kind of dancing little snowflakes one by one. NOT! We hit the gas slammed into the pile of snow and it completely covered the windshield. We could see nothing! With wipers going full speed and no visibility we almost hit a tree. Not quite what I imagined.

I still have a very active imagination although I try to think things through a little more. I think it's part of why I'm so visual and can find a jewel in just about anything.

Our imagination is from God. He obviously had a great imagination just look at some of the things He's created.

The problem is we get older and we use this powerful part of our brain less and less and sadly some people stop using it all together. When we stop imagining we stop dreaming and when we don't have dreams we become stagnant and I believe this affects our faith. We stop asking God for things we can't give ourselves. We stop believing Him for things He gave us the imagination to posses. We don't act out what we developed believing it will ever be real.

What do you imagine? What dreams are you believing God for?

For me, I imagine every generation in my family from now til Jesus returns to be serving the Lord. To one day have books that are shipped all over the world. I dream of Gena's Jewels classes being led nationwide. I see “Gem Homes” for women who are abused or rescued from human trafficking or just a place for a hurting person to rest. I want to help orphans find families.

I want to take my children to the Grand Canyon. I want my future husband to take me to Italy. I want to teleport to Africa. I want to fly and speak different languages, heck I want to cook without burning anything, imagine that!

I don't want to be like the horse on the carousel that just goes round and round never experiencing new things. I want to jump off and explore new possibilities.

I could look back on the day I was banned from the yard and be sad but I gotta tell ya every time I think of that day it still makes me giggle hearing my father say “what the hell is wrong with that kid?” I'll tell ya what's wrong with this kid I don't care what the world taught me. I want to imagine things unseen as if they were real so they will become my reality. Gena's Jewels would still be a dream if I didn't start writing.

Gems I never want to stop using my imagination. Thank you Jesus for creating such a beautiful place in our minds.

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

And by the way now that I'm back to using my own name (most of the time) I looked up the meaning of it:

Gender: Female

Origin: French

Meaning: Queen

Imagine that......