Imagine

“20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph. 3:20-21).

Our God does more than we ask or imagine. And how dare we take this lightly!

Our God who does more than we imagine, he imagines zebras. Galaxies and black holes and supernovas. Birds of paradise flowers, Venus fly traps, and sensitive ferns that fold when you touch them. DNA and noses (those funny looking things). Magnesium that regulates over 300 biochemical reactions in the body. What an imagination!

Our God, he imagines the walls of a fortified city tumbling at trumpets, who imagines the sun standing still and stars fighting (Judges 5:20), a whale swallowing a prophet, parting of the Red Sea. What an imagination! New ways to save, and our God is never at the end of his resources!

Our God, he imagines restorations so great that only precious stones can describe it, stones set in antimony and foundations with sapphires and pinnacles of agate (Isa. 54:11). And he imagines a good so great that nations tremble (Jer. 33:9). What an imagination!

“And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it” (Jer. 33:9).

Our God, he imagines in a love so great that it includes a birth in a manger, foot washing, leper touching, death as a criminal by the worshipped King of glory. A love imagination so great it includes his beloved Lazarus’ death while Mary and Martha watch and wait anxiously as the Lord never appears, the apostle whom he loved’s exile, his champion Paul’s permitted-thorn-in-the-flesh and flogging and shipwrecks. Who could imagine?

My God imagines a glory that far outweighs the suffering, that will make these long days seem but the mist before the glorious sunrise (2 Cor. 4:17-18), that no eye has seen nor ear has heard nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9). I cannot imagine! But he does, he can. This is our great God, the God of imagination in love!

So my Jesus, by your Spirit embolden my asks. May my asks be so big that they honor you, honor your imagination! Sanctify my imagination, grant a vision and hope so big that it sustains me. Please, in your great, powerful, glorious, creative name, amen.