Harmless As Doves Series

A small boy sat by the side of a pool fishing. "What are you fishing for," asked a man who

passed by. "Sharks," replied the boy. "But there are no sharks in that pool my little man,"

said the stranger. "There ain't any fish in this pool at all," answered the boy. "So I might as

well fish for sharks as anything else."

Children have a vivid imagination, and this is certainly one of the characteristics Jesus

had in mind when He said men must become as little children before they can enter the

kingdom of heaven. Imagination is the eye of the soul. Without it we are, as Beecher once

said, "And observatory without a telescope." You cannot enter into the world of great

literature and poetry without imagination. Robert Louis Stevenson discussed every sentence

of Treasure Island with his schoolboy step-son before giving it its final form. He knew that if

his story was to be great he had to appeal to the imagination of youth. Einstein said that

even in science, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Imagination is the key to

great discoveries in every realm of life, including the spiritual. John Davidson wrote,

That minister of ministers, Imagination, gathers up--

The undiscovered Universe, Like Jewels in a jasper cup.

No one can begin to understand the teaching of Christ without imagination. Jesus

constantly spoke in parables, and used imagery that would leave a man in the dark who did

not have the illumination of a childlike imagination. The common people heard Jesus gladly

because he did not speak in abstract theological terms, but in common pictures that appealed

to the imagination. The kingdom of heaven, he said, was like a man sowing seed, like a

woman putting leaven in bread, like a merchant in search of fine pearls. Or else he would say,

it is like a mustard seed, or treasure buried in a field, or like a net thrown into the sea

gathering fish of every kind.

Jesus took His illustrations from life, and from nature, and appealed to the imagination.

He did so because God made nature the greatest resource for material for visual aids in

religious education. Jesus also knew what modern psychology has discovered-that the

imagination is more powerful than the will. Win a man's imagination and he is your captive.

Great leaders must appeal to the imagination of their followers to hold their allegiance.

Napoleon said the human race is governed by its imagination.

On an individual level you can demonstrate this easily. Take a ten inch plank and put it on

the ground and walk from one end to the other. It is simple. But put the same plank across

two buildings ten stories up and you could no longer do that simple act. Your imagination

would fill your head with visions of falling and it would leave you powerless. Modern

psychology says that whenever the will and the imagination come into conflict the

imagination always wins. This means that a mind filled with visions of tragedy and evil

around the corner cannot be set at rest by good news and positive signs. The imagination

reigns and makes them pessimistic in spite of all evidence to the contrary. On the other

hand, fill the imagination with pictures of glory and victory, and all the storms of hell will not

be able to blow you off the pleasant path of optimistic assurance. That is why the book of

Revelation is so precious to Christian in persecution. Its vivid scenes of glory around the

throne of God, and the victory songs of Christ and all His saints wins the imagination over

and makes it a friend rather than an enemy in the battle of life.

This means that a Christian generally lives on a level that corresponds with his

imagination. If it is weak, he will be like the man of whom Macaulay said, "His imagination

resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar." The

Christian, however, is never to be content with wings that do not lift him aloft. We are

meant to mount up with wings like an eagle. We are to have aspirations like David who

wrote in Psalm 55:6, "O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest."

These wings of the dove, that David longed for, are available to all believers who have the

imagination to appropriate them. Ever since the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a

dove, theology has been linked to the wings of the dove. Spurgeon pointed out that many

astounding sermons have been preached on the dove. All history has been ransacked for

facts and fables about doves, and they have been used to teach lessons of Christian truth.