“The RoseBouquet”

Do you have a vivid imagination? Do you easily visualize scenes and conversations that go on and on? Do you do well at predicting what your family or friends will say in any given situation? Creative ideas drop from you like dandruff? Then you are blessed with a very special gift from God, a creative imagination.

You may have been told it is a curse, that it is a runaway imagination, and often it is said as if it is a dirty thing.

(In fact, there is a certain realm from which I stay far away, where a vivid imagination is considered a tool of the devil. I’m not going to the area of immoral fantasies). Let’s stick to a discussion of a healthy, creative imagination. This is to do with a mind that can visualize scenes and conversations vividly and discern the thoughts and intentions of others.

Such creative visualization is required gear for a creative writer or a poet, or an artist. These gifted people cannot express a great idea or theme if they cannot first imagine or visualize it.

Isn’t it odd that we encourage creative kids to express their ideas until those ideas go to areas we don’t approve of, and then suddenly we start squelching their ideas? This proves that while an imagination is a gift from God, it needs to be trained and disciplined to produce good and godly things instead of the ugly and filthy.

Did you know that our imagination is not so much a work of our mind, as first of our spirit - that part that communes with God? A thought may be planted in our mind first, but truly inspired ideas come from our spirit in fellowship with God’s Spirit. Next, our mind, and then our hands and mouth, are the means by which these ideas can be expressed, and it is our soul, the seat of our personality, that colours our ideas and makes them uniquely ours.

Ruthe’s Vivid Imagination

I would like to introduce you to Ruthe, the main character in the novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. She has a very creative, vivid imagination. - Very! This shows up repeatedly in how she can visualize with great clarity and detail what others may be thinking and feeling. It is almost as if she can hop into the other person’s mind and see things through their eyes and thoughts. Some might call that having visions but this is unique. It is not prophetic so much as the ability to identify in her imagination with the other person’s perspective. The wonderful thing is that she doesn’t just live vicariously through others, but she has a strong sense of right and wrong and what solutions that other person needs.

Her scariest times are when she gets into a new situation and has nothing from past experiences or reading with which to tell what could happen next. However, because of the principles she believes in, she plunges in, expecting ideas and answers to show up when needed. (Her principles and courage lead to another topic we’ll cover another time). An example shows up immediately in the first chapter where Ruthe drives around and around a block in the city, feeling certain that someone in that noisy place with the pulsating neon sign.

She was also able to visualize at least two businesses for friends who needed . . . .

[To read the rest of this article go to: Vivid Imagination and Visualization ]