Most houses begin on the back of an envelope. A rough rectangle for the living room. A square for the kitchen with a little cross where the stove will go. Two bedrooms, then a third squeezed in, then crossed out, then drawn again. A veranda along the front, because there must always be a veranda. Somewhere in the corner, in small writing, a sum that does not quite add up yet.
I have seen these drawings on church bulletins, on the backs of utility bills, in school exercise books belonging to grown men. They are some of the most hopeful documents a family ever produces. They are imagination in its simplest form: a picture of something that does not yet exist, held in the mind long enough to put on paper.
The God who goes beyond the drawing
Paul ends a long prayer for the church in Ephesus with a burst of praise: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).
It is worth noticing what Paul is praying for just before that. Not houses or land, but that believers would be rooted and grounded in love, and would grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is (Ephesians 3:17-19). The “exceedingly abundantly” is first of all about God’s love and work in his people. But because God is the same in every part of life, the verse also speaks gently to our more ordinary dreams, including the ones drawn on envelopes.
It says, in effect: your imagination is not the ceiling. God is not limited to what you can picture.
When we stop drawing
Some of us stopped sketching years ago. The rent went up, the job was lost, the marriage ended, the land dispute dragged on. The envelope went in a drawer and then in the bin. We told ourselves that a home of our own was for other people.
There is a kind of self-protection in that. If you never hope, you are never disappointed. But it can also shrink a life. A family that has stopped imagining anything better often stops planning, saving or praying about it too.
Imagination, in the life of faith, is not fantasy. It is closer to hope with a pencil in its hand. It is the willingness to ask, “What might God do here?” and to let the question stay open.
Dreaming with open hands
There is another side, of course. Imagination can run in unhelpful directions: the house far larger than any budget could carry, the dream that becomes an idol, the plan that leaves no room for anyone else’s needs. “Exceedingly abundantly” does not mean God will build whatever we draw. Sometimes the “above all we ask” turns out to be something quite different from what we asked for.
Consider a woman who spent years sketching a four-bedroom house on her late father’s land. In the end the family decided, after much prayer and many difficult conversations, to sell the land and divide the proceeds. She used her share towards a modest two-bedroom flat near her grandchildren. It was not the house on the envelope. But looking back, she said it was better: close to the people she loved, easy to manage as her knees grew stiffer, and paid off far sooner than the big house ever could have been.
Proverbs puts it simply: a man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9). We draw. God redraws. The best dreaming is done with open hands.
Practical imagination
If you have stopped imagining, you might begin again in small, concrete ways. Take out an envelope. Draw the home you would love your family to have in ten years, not to impress anyone, but to be honest about what you hope for. Then pray over it. Show it to your spouse, or a trusted friend. Ask what would need to be true for any part of it to happen: savings, a conversation with a lender, sorting out a title, forgiving a relative.
And be willing for God to change the drawing. The goal is not that your plan comes true exactly. It is that you stay open to a God who can do more, and often something wiser, than you could have imagined.
For reflection
- Have I stopped imagining a better future for my household? When, and why?
- Is there a dream I am holding so tightly that I would struggle to let God reshape it?
A short prayer: Father, you are able to do far more than I ask or think. Give me the courage to hope again, the wisdom to plan well, and the humility to let you redraw the picture. Let whatever home you give us be full of your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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