Who is your favorite artist? DaVinci? Monet? O’Keefe?
Although he is not often considered as such, my favorite artist is God. His creativity is bar none, and you have to admit that his portfolio of work is quite staggering.
Indeed, one of my favorite things about God is his creativity. I think it’s because, as an artist, it’s the characteristic I can most relate to and appreciate.
I love going to the zoo, and learning about the different animals, about their habitats and ecosystems, and how each creature is custom-made to thrive in its specific environment. And on top of all the function is an amazing level of beauty mixed in as well. He didn’t have to create as many different types and variations of animals as he did, but in my experience, when you’re on a creative roll, it’s hard to stop.
The nine months of both of my wife’s pregnancies was a graduate level course in God’s great design. The sheer number of things that have to happen in order to successfully grow a human being from two microscopic cells is frankly, ridiculous. Babies are born every day, so it’s easy to take it all for granted, but the complexity of the system that makes it happen makes Swiss watch design look like a Lego toy in a Happy Meal.
So the other day, I came across a tutorial on how to make rainbow flowers. Before you chalk this up as the classic “put-white-flowers-in-water-dyed-with-food-coloring” trick, look again. The flower is not just dyed one color, but a rainbow of color. Neat huh?
I don’t know about you, but I think this takes something already quite remarkable — a flower — and makes it even better. Now, as I happen to regard flowers as one of God’s coolest inventions, I couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t have already thought of such an idea. Why didn’t he design flowers like this on his own? Why did he leave the door open for mankind to one-up him on this?
Then the light bulb went off.
Could God have created a white flower that naturally features a rainbow on its petals? Sure, his bag of tricks is pretty vast. But as unlikely as it sounds, God wants to be co-creators with us.
If he went ahead and created EVERYTHNG that could possibly be created, then by default, it would be impossible for us to create anything new. And that would be boring.
Too many people think that being creative is reserved for “artsy” types. Not so. We are all made in God’s image. God is creative, and as such, we are born with a creative side as well.
We can create paintings and songs and plays, sure. But we also can create businesses, learning environments, safe spaces for at-risk kids, more useful curricula, new technologies, better childhoods for our children, and opportunities for others to thrive.
We can create movements.
We can create legacies.
We can create lives that inspire others and give glory to the ultimate creator.
Believe it or not, you. are. creative. It’s in your DNA.
So…
What are you creating?
Thanks for this blog Kim and Jason. Just happened upon it cuz I was monkeying around, frustrated that my scanner wont scan and the project I had planned to work on this evening, isn’t going to happen tonight. Oh well.
I am a ‘creative’. Yup, that’s right. I went to a really cool artist conference about a year or so ago and that concept totally amazed me. This “STORY” conference held in Chicago was non-stop treats for our eyes to see, our ears to listen to, to sing along in worship, for our mouths to taste all sorts of yummies, and… for our hearts to be filled with. We were no longer graphic artists, painters, composers, writers, musicians, but were called CREATIVES. I really liked that.
And we were reminded that all these gifts are from God, who loves us dearly and created us to be creative. Not sure I will ever be a wealthy person, but oh, my life is so rich.
Hey Jacki, I am so happy to hear that you own your creative spirit! And you are so right: being rich often has very little to do with money :)