In Song of the Open Road Walt Whitman wrote: “From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines.” From the first moment my eyes glanced over these words they became a personal motto. The poet spoke to a deep desire to live freely and achieve boldly. I had grown tired of limits and the imaginary lines that confined even my imagination.

I believe it is the failure of imagination in our world today that is the cause of our social and economic woes. It is a lack of imagination that has shackled our politics to partisan trenches. It is a lack of imagination that has confined the churches to legalistic doctrines and ill-fated allegiances rather than fostering healing and hope and wholeness and peace and love.

Yet we find ourselves in Advent, mere weeks from commemorating the miracle of the Christ-child’s birth. If anything can inspire imagination, this ancient story ever old, ever new can revive our imaginations as we remember the coming of the Prince of Peace. The promise of God’s very essence dwelling with us should awaken our imaginations to the potential of seeing the reign of Love in our homes, cities, and nations.

Looking to the Creator, who made us in the image and likeness of the Divine, we too can embrace our imaginative spirits and live beyond limits and imaginary lines. Who wants to be confined? Who wants to be imprisoned behind walls of our own building? It may seem safe, but it is not to safety that Advent calls us.

We are called to live watchful, patient lives that embrace the reality of miracles, the reality of God with us here and now. If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is the Creator, who can limit us? Let us strive this Advent to let our imaginations soar and live to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth.