Spring 2023 | Volume 16 | Issue 2
This issue of Lifesigns has been a difficult one to publish. The subject matter was rather difficult to “wrangle”, not that pulling all of the pieces together was complicated or tedious. It was not hard to tell the difference between reality and fantasy or fiction, but there is so much material and information about the subject, especially from the secular world. I didn’t find much information and/or articles about reality versus fiction from a Christian perspective. I am not really sure why. However, I do know that even in Jesus’ day people had a difficult time discerning the two worlds. Ever since the fall of man, we’ve been struggling with the world we live in and the other world we know is real but can’t see, touch, taste, or feel it.
Many in the scientific and intellectual world would say that Christians, and those of other faiths, are living with either their collective heads in the sand or they have tossed all intellect and reasoning out the window and caught the proverbial bus to Heaven. They just haven’t had their ticket punched yet. I once heard someone say that “perception is reality.”
I don’t think they were referring to themselves but to the general public and how it sees the world. I don’t necessarily agree with that statement, but I do agree that our perception does play a big role in how we interpret life. If you go on Tik Tok, Instagram, or any other social media that has filters, you will see thousands of people adding filters to their selfies. They want to see what they would look like if they were a lion, tiger, a boy or a girl, a super-hero, and the list is almost endless. Is it fun? Yes, it’s fun. But is it good? Not sure yet. But I do know that the Apostle Paul said that all things are permissible but not all things are profitable.
Our imagination is one of the many things that sets us apart from the animal kingdom. I think our imagination is part of God’s divine nature that He has put in us. We create art, songs, and, technology, build houses and structures, and much more for the sheer pleasure of it - not just because it’s our instinct. So, to say that we are not in touch with reality because we use our imagination is paramount to saying God created the world, our universe, and mankind just because it was His instinct. In Genesis, it says that God looked at all He created and said it was good. The problem with our imagination is that it gets to a place that we can’t tell the difference between the real and
the imagined. God did not create the world in all its beauty and wonder just for us to run off into creation and forget about Him. The world was and is part of His creative imagination but we, my friends, every one of us, were created in His image, and He breathed His breath of life into us. We became a living soul. That is reality! So, as you read this issue of LifeSigns, remember He is the source of all creation and imagination. I am not saying that all that is created and imagined by man is God but because we are created in His image we are creative and imaginative just like He is.
