Our three grandsons live next door to us.
Each
afternoon the boys drop in, check out our fridge and pantry, then pull out the
Craft Box and get down to some serious creating…. all the while chatting away,
filling me in on their day. I love these times.
Zion
is 7yrs old and lately has been making superhero characters. He draws them and
colours them, and cuts them out. Then he and his two younger brothers tear
around the house and yard playing out imaginary dramas with these characters.
I’ve always been fascinated by a child’s insatiable drive to
create.
Whether it be drawing superhero figures, building Lego structures, solving
puzzles on their ipads, dancing, playing dress-ups, telling stories… dreaming
and creating is in their DNA. It’s the way Creator God designed them – in His
own image. We are all born with the hunger to create, a drive to craft
something new, something unique.
I
was reflecting on all this last week when I was hit with this thought:
If God is Creator, if creating is intrinsic to his immutable
nature, then he must be creating continually. God never stops creating.
Now,
I know you know that.
I’ve
always known that.
But
this was one of those revelation moments for me.
And
it was startling.
What
is God creating today? What did He create yesterday? Another plant species?
Another universe? There must be an infinite amount of things that God has been
creating since … um … well, throughout all of his eternal existence. God has
never stopped creating.
It’s
impossible for my finite mind to fully comprehend this fact. Who knows what
remarkable creations exist outside our universe, or within it for that matter,
that we just cannot know about.
But one thing I have come to understand is this - that one of
the ways God chooses to create is through people. This is why He created us in His own
image – so we could partner with Him in the process of His creating.
We
are conduits. But not in an impersonal way, rather God delights to see this new
creation of His with my spin on it. My personality, my experiences, my
passions, my choices - it’s a partnership. God sharing Himself with me. Me
sharing Him with the world. I clearly remember being overawed by this fact
throughout my first pregnancy - each day realizing that God’s act of creating
human life was taking place within me, and with my assistance. How
astounding!
Sometimes we tend to limit our understanding of ‘creative’
people to the painters and sculptors, web designers, musicians, writers and
dancers of this world. But if we look more closely we’ll find creativity driving the
scientist to discover that new vaccine, the detective to solve that crime, the
company manager to build that business, and the mother to turn that house into
a home. Whoever we are, God will use our personality, our passions, our talents
and our choices to express His creative nature through us.
God has assimilated His creative self into us. What a privilege. What an
inspiration to locate what He is up to in us today, so that we can capture it
and proclaim it to the world around us. Think about that for a moment - God
releasing His creative passion through me today – with my unique spin on it!
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| Zion, self portrait |
