I don't have the faintest idea how to physically imagine magnetic reconnection. I've only seen it described in terms of "field lines", which are pretty much imaginary. Can anyone explain it in more concrete terms without requiring intimate familiarity with Maxwell's equations?

Edit: To be clear about the unreality of field lines, since that's apparently necessary: magnetic fields are not made of finite numbers of discrete 1D elements. They are continuous. The placement of individual "field lines" in a drawing is purely arbitrary. This part I understand quite well.