A few years back someone in our high school class set up a Facebook page to prep for our upcoming reunion, which introduced me to Roland Peachie. This previously unknown classmate from decades back creates marvelous images with photographs. He posted a pic with these words, “…the new adapter came in today, not only infinity has been fixed (I’d never realized someone broke it) but my Macro is now about 6 feet closer, which I really like.. test shots show even a different background blur with the new adapter.”
Must have been Latin he was speaking, I understood nothing. But I did get his passion to create and replied, “I love playing with words and their sounds and their connotations, and I see the same joy in you when playing with lens and adapters and images. The gift of creativity when used is cool, isn't it?”
Both Roland and I enjoy working with images and words for an effect. Or, we like to add something to life, to change and vary it.
Here’s the hook: our creativity is a direct result from being in God’s image, and the more we create the closer we get to him. Look at the early words from Moses, “In the beginning, God created…so let us create man in our image” (Genesis 1:1, 27).
For years, I mis-defined creativity as being a great artist or musician or sculptor or….and I never measured up. I only draw straight lines when I attempt a curved one. I’m one of the few ever asked to leave a children’s choir in church. And although mom saved a seal I carved in wood shop in junior high, only a mother’s blind love caused her to save such a pathetic piece of “art.”
So, allow me to explore creativity. It springs from a holy discontent with OK, with mediocrity, with the status quo. My wife creates great meals because Hot Pockets are below mediocre. She creates quilts that add beauty to our home. We all wear clothes rather than rags out of our inner desire to add beauty to the world.
The story behind the pic? Many of you have seen it, but when we moved back into our Temecula house the yard was a neglected mess. I make no claims to being a great landscape architect, but Sheila and I created something that adds serenity and beauty.
Get the idea? That’s the divine pattern. Why did God create? Because “…the earth was formless and empty” (verse 2). Because the creation before man was good, but not complete, so only when he made man did it became “very good” (verse 31). Then, he rested.
My premise: we create because He placed eternity in our souls, and we recognize incompletion, mediocrity. We yearn for better. So, we play with lens and macros and adaptors and words and material and grass and rocks and music to better our world. Just like our creator. And if we know him, I suspect our creativity creates a deeper connection with him.
Kick Starting the Application
How does the concept of creativity being a divine gift strike you? Have you limited the concept of creativity to exclude your gifts and abilities? Why? What varieties of creativity do you now experience? What might you expand? Do you think God smiles at you when you improve or add to the beauty of the world?