Recently I’ve written a few things concerning my love for children’s fiction. This time around I want to say a brief word about stories in general. Why is it that stories hold such a power over the mind? such sway over the imagination? It is no small question. After all, a story is more than a plot line, more than characters or settings. A story when it is well written can break through the pages of a book and extend beyond the author’s own descriptions.
The greatest stories offer more than a tale to be told. They grant those who read them a doorway to another world. A world to be explored and enjoyed even apart from the constraints of the plot line or the path of the protagonist. When an author creates a world in a story, it is as though he or she is merely the one who tips the snowball off the top of the slope and the reader is the one who runs alongside of it. By the time the reader becomes engrossed in the story, the size of the snowball is already far greater than the author could have ever intended… or controlled for that matter.
I suppose I should here connect the love of stories to the Christian life by means of some application or doctrine… I don’t think I have the time here to really take the topic on and there are certainly many differences concerning God’s word in relation to mere man-made stories: Its reality, its divinity, its significance, its authority, are just some of the ways in which God’s word towers over creative fiction. We ought never to forget that the Gospel is not a story to be appreciated but a truth to be accepted.
But how’s this for starters: Perhaps as we grow to enjoy stories more, we will in equal measure become more aware of the cosmic drama of redemption that is recounted and explained in the Scriptures and attested to with the passing of each day. So then the next time you read Revelations 19-22, take some time to pause and enjoy the scenery. Just because the words keep going until chapter 22 doesn’t mean you can’t look up into the skies of ch. 21 to watch the heavenly Jerusalem descending upon the New Earth.
You see, your imagination is not your enemy so long as it is standing on truth and reaching for heavenly joy. I am happy that God has given us a portal to enter the heavenly places and a ladder upon which we may ascend the heights of sanctified possibility. Coooooool.
i think at the end, you meant portal. I don’t know what a porthole is.
But yeah, imagination is uber tight. Imagination is us wondering what is out there, while what is actually out there is already set. It’s great to have right now, but like you always tell me, even imagination (and the concept of mind exploration) is an echo of what is to come.
I can’t wait until there’s no need for it anymore, and whats left is the sheer amount of reality that is tangibly before us. Maranatha!