Not long ago, I watched Heaven Is for Real, the story of a young boy who briefly steps into heaven while lying on an operating table. Throughout the film, he searches for words big enough to hold what he saw — colors brighter than sunlight, landscapes alive with peace, beauty so real it almost hummed. And isn’t that how it is for us? In our humanity, we strain to picture heaven, to grasp the fullness of God’s reality. Most people can hardly imagine it, and many don’t believe it at all.
Yet imagination is often the doorway God uses to invite us into His plans, his precious tapestry of each and every one of our lives.
I think back to the first time the Lord placed the SONshine Home on our hearts. It was around 2010. Heidi and I — along with our families — had already welcomed many vulnerable children and young adults into our home. We didn’t have a map, but we had a stirring. God kept nudging, whispering, painting faint outlines of a place where hearts could be restored and minds renewed through the transforming love of Jesus.
The Gift of Imagination
Imagination is the God-given ability to see what is not yet visible. It is the inner canvas where God brushes the first strokes of what could be. For believers, imagination becomes the lens through which we glimpse the future God is fully capable of bringing to life. It shapes how we understand what God can do… and what He will do when we dare to say “yes.”
Scripture reminds us again and again that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37; Jeremiah 32:27; Matthew 19:26). The Hebrew word for imagination, yeser, means “a frame of mind” or “the imagination of the thoughts of the heart.” It suggests that imagination is not fantasy — it is formation. It is the shaping of something God has already planted within us.
The missing ingredient in “anything is possible” is often simply this: IMAGINATION.
There are no limits to what you can imagine, no limits to what God can inspire, and no limits to what He can accomplish.
Seeing Beyond the Horizon
Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” That means our imagination is not the ceiling — it’s the starting point.
When God places a dream in our hearts, He invites us to begin with the end in mind. Abraham understood this. In Genesis 13:14–18, God tells him to lift his eyes — to look north, south, east, and west. To picture descendants as countless as the dust beneath his feet. Abraham stood on ordinary ground, yet God asked him to see extraordinary promise. He couldn’t see the fulfillment yet, but he could imagine it. And that was enough for God to begin unfolding the story.
Imagination is the bridge between God’s promise and our obedience. It is the ability to see a reality not yet realized, but already prepared, already resourced, already held in God’s hands.
Jesus Himself used imagination to comfort His disciples in John 14, describing a Father’s house with many rooms — a place prepared for them. Scripture continually invites us to imagine what God is preparing.
Our role is simple: imagine, obey, trust.
The Birth of a Vision
A few months ago, I found myself sketching — again — the vision God placed on our hearts so many years ago. I’m not an artist, but that drawing now sits on the whiteboard in my office. The first time I drew it was back in 2010, sitting with a pastor from Lewistown. I still remember the way the afternoon light caught the deep wrinkles around his eyes, the long white mustache, and the quiet certainty in his voice as he said:
“God has the land. God has the place. And GOD ALREADY HAS IT BUILT.”
That was the first picture of God’s imagination — a family neighborhood, a place of rest, healing, love, and hope. A place of dignity where young families could grow and thrive, children feel safe, and parents are surrounded by the kindness of sisters and brothers in Christ.
The Limitless Nature of Kingdom Imagination
When we begin to imagine what God has planned, the possibilities stretch far beyond our abilities. He brings the right people. He builds the right relationships. He provides the resources. He opens the doors.
There is no end to Kingdom Imagination because there is no end to God’s creativity, power, or love. When our hearts align with His will, He brings the vision to life — in His timing, in His way, for His glory.
That is Kingdom Imagination: seeing with heaven’s eyes, dreaming with heaven’s hope, and trusting with heaven’s confidence.
And so we wait — expectant, grateful, and in awe — as the Lord continues this beautiful tapestry, to carry out His plan and to use all things to display HIS GREAT GLORY.
Won’t you join us in both prayer and praise over what is to come?
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I, send me!” Isaiah 6:8
