The universe in which we live is so amazing. Have you seen the images of faraway galaxies sent to Earth by the James Webb Space Telescope? Stunning photos of distant space we have never seen before.

Scientists have been waiting decades since the launch of the telescope for the sight of these galaxies. The view is overwhelming, and it began with someone’s imagination. Someone who wanted to challenge what we already knew.

Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

But there is still more out there – whizzing past our Earth are asteroids and meteorites, and springing from the sun are solar flares. Here on Earth, there are dragonflies, eucalyptus trees, vast oceans, and humans with all the things created from their imagination.

If we think about it, it is just as awe-inspiring to be a person here on Earth as it is to be a galaxy in outer space.

We arrive here so vulnerable in our ability to survive alone, yet we are powerful souls on the inside. We spend a lifetime growing and becoming.

Sometimes we are sure and confident, and at others we feel like that helpless baby we used to be. Our beliefs and attitudes arise from our experiences, and we arrive at where we are today.

We each are a unique combination of body, mind and spirit filled with the power of choice – filled with the power to love – filled with creative imagination.

All of this allows us to create new experiences as opposed to feeling stuck in the reality of “what if.” When we turn our thoughts to what we want our lives to be, the possibilities are endless.

Imagination allows us to look at our world as it is and imagine how we can make it better. Imagination allows us to look at our challenges and say, “What else is there?” Our imagination allows us to thrive and to live with one another in a world of difficulties.

Poet Khalil Gibran wrote “And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.”

If we can keep our thoughts both on the reality that every day requires, and let our imaginations go a little above the worries of it all, then we can find the ways to live both in contentment and change.

Our imagination will allow us to make positive choices, to fill our world with love and imagine new ways of being as surely as the James Webb telescope opened a whole new understanding of the universe.

The Rev. Linda McNamar is a Laguna Woods Village resident.