While doing dishes one night, I was listening to the kids playing in the other room. Their pretend play involved humans, but also aliens and zombies and other fantastical creatures. It got me thinking about the power of a child’s imagination to create a world that is so far beyond our own. And I wonder if when Jesus said to become childlike, one of the reasons was that their imagination hasn’t been tamed by the everyday concerns of the adult world. They can imagine a world that doesn’t exist because they know in their hearts that they were made for a different world, one more fantastic than their own.
In A Severe Mercy, CS Lewis writes about this phenomenon in one of his letters to Sheldon Vanauken:
“Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or wd. not always be, purely aquatic creatures?”
That quote struck me so deeply. Things of the world don’t question their existence because this world was what it was made for. Yet when I look at a sunset over the Rockies, feel the power of a waterfall, hold my child that almost died, or listen to a string quartet that I never want to end, I get that feeling of the transcendent—the ache in my heart for something greater than everything this world has to offer. I feel the goodness of the world and the way it falls short all at the same time.
We live with one foot in eternity and one in the here and now. Each day we must be reminded that heaven is our home while simultaneously “working out our salvation.” Heaven will be the realization of what we were truly created for: the ultimate fulfillment of our desires. Everything we do and have and are right now prepares us for that.
Unseen Longing
We long for something outside ourselves, even thought we can’t see it right now. Recently with potty training, we have been trying to teach the three-year-old about germs, and why you must wash your hands. One evening after going to the bathroom, I reminded him we needed to wash his hands when he held them up and said, “I don’t need to wash my hands. They are all clean, see?”
As adults we know that the germs are there even if we can’t see them with our naked eyes. For thousands of years, people knew that you could get sick by being around another sick person and came up with remedies to cure illnesses, all without understanding the cause or knowing what germs were. For thousands of years, germs were something that existed without being seen.
Similarly, it’s only in the last few decades that we have really harnessed the power of radio waves, RF waves, and whatever the clouds of the internet actually are. For millennia, these unseen forces went unnoticed. Can we not believe that there are still unseen forces at work—spiritual ones— that we do not see or understand? We recently celebrated the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Like germs or electromagnetic waves, sometimes we just have to believe that they are there and recognize the movements of the spiritual world by their effects on us.
Eternal Union
When I walk into the adoration chapel, I usually get an immense feeling of peace and relief, even if the outside world is a raging tsunami. When I quiet myself, I hear the words of the Lord and the tugs of the Holy Spirit calling me to greater union. I won’t notice the words and whispers unless I step out of the bustling hubbub and attune myself to the unseen reality. Jesus said, “The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” That means the eternal is coming for each of us soon, but the Kingdom is also in the here and now when we do life with our hearts in union with God.
In every fantastical story there is a battle for the Kingdom, and the same is true for our lives. The zombies, dragons, and monsters we imagine are not merely figments of our imagination, but shapes given to the demonic forces that try to steal our peace, joy, and hope in our eternal union with God. We have to take this battle seriously - not by becoming overly dramatic about evil and demons, or glorifying them (like we often seen in Halloween decorations this time of year), but by putting them in their place. On the other side, we can’t ignore the unseen battle to only focus on the world in front of us.
God made this world good, and there are so very many good things about it. But not even the most epic experience will satisfy for more than a few moments. As we wrestle with the tension of our eternal longing and our day-to-day laundry list, it’s important to pause and invite God into our heart and our actions. If we keep our hearts and souls open to the unseen spiritual world, we will recognize the movements toward our eternal, heavenly home.