Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Either Einstein was a smart man, or he knew that from the day I was born, imagination would be a central theme in my life. As a child I could have as much fun with a rock as the average kid would have with the latest toy. And when I did get my hands on one of those toys, the possibilities for adventure were endless.

As children, we use our imaginations to explain the reality around us. And so my vivid imagination carried me into other areas of life than just play. I remember being only a small tike when I first wondered about God and the "ultimate nature" of things. It wasn't a very complex thought, just a sense of wonder of how it all fit together. I had heard stories about God in church, but I wondered what God was really like.

I remember the time when I had it all figured out and how I was finally going to see God and catch him off guard and maybe, if I had the boldness (which I was sure I didn't), ask him a few things. I figured that the reason people closed their eyes when they prayed in church was because God must come down and walk the aisles while we weren't looking. So, in my youthful ingenuity, I tried to peek really quickly to see if I could see God.  Needless to say I went away from church that morning disappointed. My precious imagination had failed to explain what I thought was the reality around me.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." But when imagination reaches its limits, where then do we turn? Knowledge provides for us a starting point, and imagination gives us the means to stretch from that point. But what is that missing element that allows us to act on that imagination? Faith is the element which allows our imagination to break free of the constraints of knowledge. And however unlikely it sounds, it was imagination empowered by faith that led me to the Reality that changed my life.

I had never really doubted the Christian faith in which I was brought up in, but there came a point in my life when I had to find out for myself if what I believed was only indoctrination from my youth. Was this reality, or was this only a dogma I had been told all my life?

I began to read the Bible. I had never really just sat down to read it, so that's what I did. As I read the Gospel of John I began to see the reality of Christ. I saw that God wasn't necessarily some distant figure who lived high above and made us follow a legalistic set of rules. I saw that through Christ, we can have a meaningful life here on earth as well as for eternity. I also saw as Jesus' disciples did in John 6 that I as a sinner had nowhere else to turn, for He had the words of life.

The reality of Christ has shown me something my imagination could have never dreamed up--forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God. A reality filled with paradox in which one must first die in order to live is far beyond anyone's wildest imagination. I stretched out with my imagination only to see it fall short. But it fell on a firm reality that has changed and will forever direct my life.

My challenge to you is to stretch out with your own imagination, and see that it too falls short. And stretch further from there and with faith look at the reality of Christ. I pray that Reality will be there to find you. To find the Reality that defines imagination, click here.