The Value of Recreation, Make-Believe and Pretending

What if the figments of our imagination and our worlds of make-believe could actually exist? What if, when we are pretending, we are also pre-tending the garden of our faith that may one day become a reality? What if our imagination, when formed properly, is the crafting table of God's plan for us?

Pretending Is Pre-Tending

In the summer, I do my best to get outside more and connect with nature. On way I do this is by tending my garden. Tending my garden recently make me think about the word "pretend". When I see children pretending, I often consider their play to be less important than our everyday work. But I would classify tending a garden as work, and that work led me to more profound truths. The work was a gateway into a world of wonder I could only access by pretending. You can read more about what I was wondering in this post.

The point I want to share here is, the tending of my garden led me to pretend about things much larger than my garden. Perhaps that's because all of creation exists in relation, since it was all created by the same Creator. And perhaps that is just the way God likes it. In tending to the earth he gave to us to steward, our imagination is activated. We then more clearly see the connections between things. When we dare to imagine, we more easily see the handiwork and patterns in God's creation.

When we tend to God's natural world, we are pre-tending the new heaven and new earth. We are cultivating in ourselves, and in all of humanity, the virtues necessary to bring God's new creation to life. Of course, we who cultivate are insignificant compared to the one who makes things grow (see 1 Corinthians 3:7). Nonetheless, our participation in this process---I believe---is part of God's designs.

Recreation Is Re-Creating

A similar connection can be seen in the word "recreation". We typically use the word to mean playing. And indeed, that is often what we are doing when we are pretending and recreating. An actor playing in a movie is pretending to be another character. Children playing video games are pretending they are the avatars in the game, and so on. I would argue that this kind of playing, which is conveniently also called "make-believe", is also way of participating in God's new creation.

There is an expression I've heard that complements these ideas: A child's play is their work. Usually when someone says that, they mean children learn about the world as they play. The activities they perform during their playtime are practice sessions for the real projects they'll complete as adults.

That's definitely part of what I'm trying to say. I would just add that their playtime doesn't just help them become who they were made to be. It also helps all of us realize humanity's potential. Jesus didn't say the kingdom of heaven is on its way. He said it is at hand right now. He is building it here on earth this very moment. Sometimes I think children are the only ones who get that, as they wonder about all that is possible when they play. Perhaps that is why Jesus said unless we change and become like children, we will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 18:3).

A good father enjoys building things with his children. To do so, however, it helps if the children use their imagination, since the thing the father is making is often too complex for the child to understand. In the same way, God is recreating heaven and earth through us when we perform recreational activities.

Of course, what the new heaven and earth will be like is beyond our comprehension. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9); but when we imagine what he might have in store, we may see little traces of God's promise in this present Creation of his. That is why having fun makes us feel so alive. Recreation gives us hints about God's new creation.

And he is working on that new creation within each of us when we invite him into our hearts, minds, and souls. This is why, I believe, Christians are among the most imaginative people I've met. The spirit of God in them has planted his very own seed of imagination within the heart, mind, and soul of the Christian. That seed is so beautiful, we cannot help but wonder about the hints of heaven it gives us.

Make-Believe Is the Making of Faith

Now let's talk a little more about the term "make-believe". One could argue that a kid who is playing "make-believe" is simply making his playmates believe that everything the kid is saying is actually real. If the kids says, "Make believe this toy airplane can fly backwards", everyone playing with him says, "Sure, why not?" It's harmless fun, and it allows the child to expand his adventurous spirit.

But I think there's something more going on within our worlds of make-believe. The phrase links the imagination to faith. All the make-believe games we played as children made it easier for us to believe the real unbelievable stuff that our faith expects us to believe; like the Virgin Birth, the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the miracles God performed through the saints, and the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Please hear me right. When I say the "real unbelievable stuff", I'm not using the word "real" as a crutch word, like "this pizza is real good". Rather, I'm saying there were some real events in our history that could only be categorized as unbelievable. If we didn't train our minds as children to imagine the unimaginable, and to play make-believe about unbelievable things, we may not have been able to believe the real unbelievable stuff when we were called to do so.

I believe this Christian calling to believe the unbelievable inspires people to test the limits of reality. This kind of testing has often led to new inventions that have improved lives. If God can do the impossible, why wouldn't he invite his children to test the limits of what is possible? As long as we give him the glory for giving us the means to do this, I don't see anything wrong with it. The danger comes when we forget the One who gave us the ability to imagine, discover, invent, and improve our human condition.

Imagining Precedes Building

So, let's not downplay the practical role the imagination plays in the real world. In many cases, we would have never built a better world if it were not for those who dared to imagine a better one. We probably wouldn't have the automobile if inventors like Carl Benz didn't imagine making one. The common person probably would never have been able to afford a car if Henry Ford didn't imagine building an assembly line. We might have never had electric cars if Nikola Tesla never imagined electric propulsion powering a motor. We might not have airplanes if the Wright Brothers didn't dare to imagine that we could fly

I'm not interested in giving Benz, Ford, Tesla, and the Wright Brothers the credit for inventing the car, assembly line, electric motor, and airplane. In fact, many inventors came close to inventing similar technologies. I'm not going to get into that. The point is, imagining isn't just something we do for fun, and it's not just a way to be nostalgic about our childhood. It also provides the seeds for realistic breakthroughs in every field. Just about every great invention was once just a figment of someone's imagination.

Images imagined with Chat GPT and Gemini