An Imaginary Friend

When my daughter was young she had several friends, a family of them actually, the Hainjas. Now the Hainjas were very interesting because although they were Abbys best friends, my husband and I never saw them. Abby insisted that they were real. We could hear her talk to them and she would even tell us what they would wear on any given day.

Youve probably guessed that the Hainjas were my daughters imaginary friends, a common childhood phenomenon and one that brought joy to many a day for my daughter and a good laugh to my husband and I. Do you have a Hainja? An imaginary friend? Is her name Faith? Many of us claim to be followers of Christ, but have an imaginary faith. A faith that is not visible to others.

Many of us dont have a real faith and that makes it difficult to define. We try to define an imaginary faith and it is unconvincing to others. They want to believe but they just dont see it. They see that you really believe, but they find it more amusing than anything.

In Hannah Whitnall Smiths book, The Christians Secret Of A Happy Heart, she speaks of faith. (Faith) is nothing at all tangible. It is simply believing God; and, like your sight, it is nothing apart from its object. You see something and thus know that you have sight; you believe something and thus know that you have faith. For as sight is only seeing, so faith is only believing. The virtue does not lie in your believing but in the thing you believe. If you believe the truth ...