52 Blessings – Knowledge, Wisdom, and the Like

Yesterday I picked a bunch of tomatoes out of the garden (our outdoor refrigerator that keeps things fresh) and it reminded me of this saying pinned on Ande's pinterest board:

So true.  So true.

That saying reminded me of a conversation I had years ago with Abe and Ty.  They were little boys and had joined me on my daily walk.  We visited about school and recess and I told them that Albert Einstein had said that imagination was more important than knowledge and what did they think about that?  They debated the issue for two miles.

More than a dozen years later, Abe wrote in a letter, “Mom, I remember you used to always talk to me about Albert Einstein’s quote that knowledge without imagination is nothing.  I would always argue that knowledge was more important, but Albert was right.”

I have no idea what prompted Abe's discovery.  I just know that he came to understand for himself that imagination makes knowledge useful.  And when you imagine how that knowledge can help others and then apply it . . . well, then it becomes wisdom.

Knowledge tells you that when light meets water it makes a rainbow.  Imagination puts the color into the rainbow and the little pot of gold at the end of it.  Wisdom appreciates and reverences the wonder of God when light meets water, and remember that blessings, like the rainbow, always follow storms well endured.

Marion G. Romney said that the capacity to convert knowledge to wisdom is one of the blessings of the Holy Spirit.  And in my estimation and imagination, that makes perfect sense.  I'm grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that helps knowledge become wisdom, and for men and women everywhere who use their knowledge, imagination, and wisdom to benefit all of us.  And . . . for tomatoes, which reminded me of all of this in the first place.