What do we imagine?

Lately I have been thinking about how our plans shape our lives. A verse that comes to mind is Genesis 6:5: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually" (NRSV). One translation replaces the phrase "inclination of the thoughts of their hearts" with "everything they thought and planned" (CEV), another with "every intent of the thoughts of his heart" (NKJV), and another with "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart" (YLT). The passage goes on to say that, upon seeing humanity's evil works and imagination, God grieves.

Thoughts of our hearts, inclinations, plans, intentions, imagination--these are related to each other, and they are also related to our actions. It seems that our actions spring from our meditations. As Jesus says, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). This makes me ask, What do I imagine? How might that influence my actions and decisions?

Children of God are called to reflect the kindness, justice, and righteousness of God. Does our imagination, do our plans and dreams, express such qualities? If not, how can they?

It seems that our imagination is fed by everything we observe. Just as a writer writes mainly with words that are part of her vocabulary, we imagine primarily with images that are part of our memory. The root of the word imagination is image, which means something that represents something or someone else--usually in a visual medium, like a drawing or a sculpture. So, what images do I look at? What kinds of movies, TV shows, Facebook posts do I see? What music, whose voices do I listen to? On a deeper level, what do I read? What stories, ideas, characters live inside my imagination? Beyond human creations, how much time do I look at, listen to, smell, taste, feel things that God has made--the warm light of the setting sun brushing against the tops of trees, a pillar of cloud climbing a mountain? And how do all these elements and my memories of them interact inside of me?

In contrast to the thoughts and plans which grieved God, maybe the goal is to cultivate an imagination that reflects God's character. Perhaps this resembles the Apostle Paul's encouragement to think about "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise" (Philippians 4:8). 

God created humanity in God's image (Gen. 1:27). We are called to be works of art which represent God in the world. May God purify our imaginations so that we bear the fruits of kindness, justice, and righteousness in our actions, and may we feed our imaginations with works of art that reflect God's character so that our very thoughts and intentions bring delight to God.