14. God gave me my imagination to help me connect with God and encounter His presence.

Are you uncomfortable using your imagination to connect with God?

How could, or does, imagination play a role in your relationship with Jesus?

How would you like to use your imagination in connecting with God?

What keeps you from using imagination in your relationship with God?

What do you sense that God has to say about this?

Our imaginations are a gift from God. Some people are skeptical about using their imaginations to connect with God. And while it’s true that imagination can be used in unhelpful ways, that does not mean that we should avoid using it to with God. 

Ignatius of Loyola believed that God can speak to us through our imaginations, giving us images, sensations, and ideas about God. It is difficult to image God because God is spirit and it’s difficult to image what we cannot see physically.

Jesus, as the physical representation of God, gives God a “face” that we can see in our minds and relate to. Ignatius invites us to use imagination as we read stories from the Gospels, to find ourselves in the story and connect with Jesus. 

With our imagination we can see Jesus’ face, not that the face itself is important, but rather the message that the face conveys. Whether we realize it or not, we already have an image of God in our minds. 

It’s our job to give God access to our minds so He can shape or re-shape that image into who He really is so we can love Him and enjoy Him as He really is.