Deep thoughts, I imagine

The sprightly young squirrel paused, sitting upright and still by the curb as he flicked his bushy tail. “Hmmm,” he pondered after awhile. “I thought I heard a possum nearby. …Must’ve been my imagination.” He resumed his task of hunting broken pecans. “If there had been a possum,” he wondered, amusing himself as he worked, “what would he be doing in this neighborhood? Visiting possum cousins? Taking a stroll? Hiding out in a garage in order to scare some poor, unsuspecting human?”

He stopped to sample a meaty piece of pecan then scurried on his way.
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I’m feeling very weird and quirky writing this post, so hang on! Whaddya think of my little squirrel story? I spent hours working on it. (And if you’ll buy that…) But what if it really happened? What if the squirrel used his imagination?

To put it bluntly, I don’t think so. But it was fun imagining the story.

I’ve been thinking this week about the miracle of imagination. Have you ever wondered about that? I believe we’re the only creation that God endowed with imagination. For example, somehow I doubt that javelinas sit around spinning yarns.

And don’t you think that is part of how we’re created in His image? He has the ultimate imagination–He created the universe, for goodness’ sake–and imagination is part of His amazing fingerprint on each of us, I believe.

I like to think that He loves it when we use our wonderings as He intended. We had such great imaginations as kids, didn’t we? Too bad our time now is often too crowded with errands, e-mail, and other day-fillers to see the invisible.

I’ll try to remind myself of that the next time I see a twitchy-tailed squirrel on my curb.