Last night, after getting home from supper, we stopped to admire the beautiful moon and stars above our house as we pulled into the driveway. My little girl was incredibly excited to see how big and bright the moon was and, after seeing it (and the stars) with an enormous smile, she immediately reached up and attempted to touch it.

When reality sank in to her two year old mind, she said, “Can’t reach the moon!” I confirmed her statement and she immediately turned to me and said, “Daddy, reach the moon!” I told her that I couldn’t reach the moon and her next question was, “Can Daddy touch the stars?” After another denial she also asked about Mommy and JT being able to assist her in the quest to touch the stars.

Childlike faith is a beautiful thing – it’s no wonder that’s what God calls for us to have. After this exchange I thought about the pressures of being that big of a role model and example to my kids who think that their mom and I can do just about anything. I thought about how wonderful it must be to think that nothing (even touching the moon) is impossible. I wondered what it is that they dream about at that age – if they dream at all. How incredible it would be to dream once again without reality as a point of reference.

Maybe we could all stand to have a little bit more of that kind of imagination. Maybe the reason that we are so dissatisfied with every day life is because we haven’t given our minds permission to wander outside of that routine in quite some time. Who knows what kind of things we could create, if we spent more time daydreaming. What would we produce for the world if we approached it with a more intelligent ignorance of what is possible?

Don’t think of it as delusions of grandeur. Think of it as stretching your mind as far as you can. God created your brain with relatively few limits when it comes to the imagination. Only when we exercise our brains to go as far as they are able will they bring us novel ideas, innovative approaches, and bring goals into focus. It won’t hurt you to dream a little.

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby