KINGDOM MEETS EARTH
B Y WA LT E R C A B A L Imagination is a Fruit A tree creates life in the orange it bears. The orange passes its life to the woman it nourishes. The woman gives her life to the daughter she births. The daughter creates by planting an orange tree in the earth, and in the bearing of the fruit, we begin the spreading of life once more. 35
This is the way I have observed a healthy imagination to be; it is something that creates and continues to create life. We see this when a painting, a portrait, a poem, an operatic song, a well-taught history lesson, or a story from the construction worker in the 15-items-or-lessline at the grocery story born of that healthy imagination begins to nourish the soul. It is like a fruit that helps you to see what could not be seen before. The internalized beauty of the song or the story are birthed from one life and passed to another; passing from the depths of one soul to another. That seeing of what has not been seen before, that passing of life from life is the characteristic nourishment of a healthy and ripe imagination. Perhaps a healthy imagination is the fruit of the tree of life. I’d like to suggest that cultivating a healthy imagination is integral for
humanity’s flourishing. Humanity truly doesn’t live on bread alone; living on bread alone is merely surviving. I’m suggesting that without a cultivated imagination, we may find ourselves with only a partially developed view of the world, and in a climate that has dismissed the imagination in favour of facts and practicality, it makes sense to have many people with eyes, but very few who can truly see. An Ancient Story There is an ancient Hebrew story of two humans in a garden, created by a figure called the Creator God. The figure is introduced first as an imaginative and creative being. You may be familiar with it, you may not be. As the story goes, the Creator God cares enough for the two humans he crafted to warn them not to eat from a tree in the middle of the garden called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Another tree is also in the center of the garden; it is called the Tree of Life. The Creator informs the two that they will die after eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Later, a serpent tricks Eve into believing that the Creator is essentially lying to them, and that they won’t die. Deceived, Eve eats
the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and then gives the fruit to Adam to eat also. A great curse comes upon the two, and they are banished from the garden. Because of this, the path to the Tree of Life was no longer open, but guarded by cherubim and swords. I’ve heard the story used as a cautionary scare-tale about the evils of the imagination. “The serpent is creative trickster who deceived Eve into using her imagination—and this imagining led them to mistrust the Creator” one might say. If framed in this light, this could cause fear of developing and cultivating an imagination at all, but I’d like to suggest that this view itself lacks imagination, and that, consequently, it lacks life also. The Absence of Imagination Destroyed the World It is an easy thing for the serpent figure to twist and distort what has already been created and seen. This is not creative imagination, but vandalism. In fact, the serpent didn’t have imagination enough to imagine that the Creator was as caring as he made himself out to be. Once the humans heard this gossip, it stifled their imaginations of the Creator
