Quote from Forum Archives on June 2, 2009, 11:10 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

CREATED TO BE CREATIVE

May 31, 2009

 

 

TEXT:  Genesis 1:26-31

 

It is getting to that time of the year when I do my annual disclaimer.  As Vacation Bible School planning rolls around and volunteers are sought to fill the needed positions, I offer this friendly reminder: I don’t do crafts.  It’s not that I don’t like crafts or that I don’t think that there is a purpose for crafts at VBS – or anywhere else for that matter.  My reason is much more utilitarian.  My attempts at almost anything crafty have results similar to Charlie Brown’s kite-flying attempts: wrapped in knotted kit string and hanging upside down from the dreaded kite-eating tree.

 

In spite of my personal inability to make crafts that are remotely recognizable, I recognize the importance of creativity.  In fact, it is plain to me that creativity is one of the most powerful gifts that God has given.  Think about it.  Virtually everyone you know has a desire to “create” something.  For some, creation takes shape through their hands; for others, it takes shape through their mind.  Some people like to work with others; some people like to be by themselves.  There are many vocations and hobbies represented by those who have gathered for worship this morning.  We all like to do things that allow us to express ourselves and give us a sense of accomplishment.  I get a kick, for instance, out of working with computers and making them work like they’re supposed to.  Well, OK, at least work well enough to get the task done.  Regardless of what it is that we actually like to do, it is important to us to be able to express some creativity.

 

This drive that we have, whether we express it through work or hobby, comes directly from God.  Being creative gives us purpose, because God expressed Himself in the creation and then, as we read, “created man in his own image.”

 

The first chapter of Genesis gives us a whirlwind account of the creation.  God called forth the universe, the world, and all things ex nihilo; that is, out of nothing.  That’s pretty creative.  In all of this creation, and in stark contrast to everything else created, only one type of being was created in the image of God: man and woman.  It is from this that we receive, I think, our drive to be creative.

 

The Bible tells us of a God who is constantly creating.  There was a point in time in which the original creation was complete, but it is made equally clear that creation does not remain in the past tense.  The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God did not finish his creation and then step back to let it run with a hands off approach.  The Bible testifies that God has acted, is acting, and will continue to act in the sustenance of his creation and in the lives of men, women, and children.  Isaiah has said in 40:28-29, “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

 

One of the ways in which God’s continual creativity is expressed is in the raising up of men and women who proclaim His Word.  Out of a place known as Ur of the Chaldeans came Abraham to be the pioneer of a new civilization founded upon God’s covenant.  Out of a bunch of ordinary brothers seeking favor with their father emerges Joseph, who ends up saving the very ones who sought to do him harm.  Out of the desert comes the fugitive Moses to lead Israel out of slavery.  Out of the hills of Israel comes an ordinary shepherd boy who faced first a Philistine giant and then the wrath of his own jealous king to become “God’s most favored.”  Gideon, Samuel, Elijah, Esther, Peter, Paul – the list goes on and on of people who have been created to do great things for God.  And don’t think that the list ends with the Bible.  Those who have watched “The Indestructible Book” video have heard of faithful Christians throughout the ages who faced huge amounts of peril and persecution in order to proclaim God’s message of salvation.  The appearance of all of these champions of the faith has been nothing short of a miracle.  No law of averages can explain them; no analysis of civilizations can predict them.  Only God, who has created them, can know for certain what qualities are needed in such moments for His work.

 

Not only does God raise up the new man or woman, He also prepares them to do His work.  Moses could never have led the people of Israel out of Egypt had not God confronted, challenged, and corrected him and then given him the vision necessary to conquer his own self-distrust.  The Bible not only holds up for us those who seemed to walk alongside God – such as Elijah and Isaiah – but also those who seemed to be hardened in their own mold until touched in a certain way by God’s Spirit.  Rahab kept the Israelite spies from being discovered.  Zaccheus repented of his unfair practices after his meeting with Jesus.  And in the most famous Biblical case of all, Paul became the greatest early church evangelist after being confronted with the truth of Christ.  Add to these the thousands outside the Biblical years who have been strengthened by the Spirit at just the right moment, and we can see how God has continued to create for our redemption.

 

God is creatively at work in the shaping of world events.  Time and again, coincidental circumstances in history have profound impacts on the course of events.  How many great discoveries have come about by apparent accident?  Some vaccines, some industrial processes, some discovery of new metals have been unintentionally found out.  Unusual things happen in major events like wars.  Wrong decisions, right decisions, and accidents all cause strange things to happen.  Yet, could it be that God, in His Providence, is arranging for such things to happen?  He is, after all, still creating.  He creates to bring righteousness out of evil.  Victor Hugo, in his writing of Les Miserables, attributes Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo to no less than the actions of God.  Writes Hugo, “Was it possible that Napoleon should have won the battle?  We answer no.  Why?  Because of Wellington?  Because of Blucher?  No.  Because of God…  Napoleon had been denounced in the infinite, and his fall had been decided on.  He embarrassed God.  Waterloo is not a battle; it is a change of front on the part of the Universe.” (“Cosette,” Book I, chapters, xviii & ix)  From the plagues visited upon Egypt to the Christ on the cross to the Battle of Waterloo to our very own day, God still creates and shapes the way that this world – His world – will be.

 

What does this mean to us?  Does God’s creativity have any impact upon us?  I say, “Of course it does.”  One of the most important verses in the Bible is found in Genesis 1: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.”  Studies have poured out of this single verse throughout the history of the Hebrew and Christian Churches.  The image of God was not merely given to Adam and Eve, but to every human born.  We are – or have the capacity to be – living images of God.

 

We are more than just flesh and bone.  We are also spirit.  We have a soul and God’s breath of life.  We have powers of intellect and communication, which free us, to some extent, from our bodies.  These powers give us the ability to worship and to fellowship with God.  They also give us abilities to be creative.

 

God is Creator and can create out of nothing.  We, of course, do not have such ability.  But because of God’s image, we nonetheless desire to be creative.  And God encourages us to be creative.  Paul went to great pains in some of his letters to describe the idea of Spiritual gifts and the importance they play in believers’ lives.  Humans are created to be creative.

 

The purpose of our creativity is to bring glory to God.  Our creativity can open up avenues for our spiritual growth and for witness.  In The Life of Alice Freeman Palmer, written by her husband George Palmer, there is an account of a club she had for little girls in one of the dreariest tenement sections of Boston.  It was called “The Happiness Club.”  It had three rules, and one of them was that each child must see something beautiful every day.  That, in the drab streets and houses to which they were accustomed, was the hardest rule of all to follow.  But with childish eagerness they did live up to it – even when the “something beautiful” they could report was nothing more than a sparrow shaking her feathers in the rain gutter, or a glint of sunlight on a baby’s hair.  What Mrs. Palmer wanted her children to understand was that beauty can be everywhere for those whose eyes and hearts alike are open to perceive it.  One commentator writes, “A man may so plod through his existence as to see only the dusty road, or he may see also the flower growing there beside it.  He may see only the hard street with its noise and clamor, or he may see the blue sky between the canyons of the crowded buildings and the white clouds floating above the city’s smoke.  He may notice in the life around him only its ugliness and greed, or he may recognize with quick eye the little glimpses of courage and beauty which break through like sunlight through the common fog.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 1, p. 487)

 

A lesson to be learned, therefore, from the account of creation is that we have been created to be creative.  Our spirit of creativity needs to be working all the time.  It is a great temptation to try to withdraw and protect ourselves whenever times turn bleak, but it is in bleak times that creativity is needed more than ever.  One of the immediate struggles a person has when laid off is one of self-worth.  The personal crisis of unemployment is severe, and more than one person has succumbed to depression.  Yet, such is a time when the spirit of creativity is needed more than ever.  It is not the person who sits at home fretting about prospects and rejection who lands a job; it is, instead, the one who applies some creativity to make some changes, if necessary, and to present himself or herself to prospective employers in a freshly energetic way.  It is not easy, and it does not always seem to work right away, but it is always better than beginning the downward spiral into despair.

 

Christians can be susceptible to difficult situations, too.  I find it relatively easy to hear about discouraging news.  It is impossible to miss the preponderance of evil activity and stupidity which pervades so much of our lives these days.  The solution, however, is not to try to withdraw from the world and build shields of self-protection.  Solutions begin to emerge only as Christians rise up creatively and apply their god-given Spiritual gifts to the difficult situations.  To those who offer only, “The world is just getting worse and worse,” I find myself asking, “Haven’t you ever read the Old Testament?  I wouldn’t call some of those events the good ol’ days!  Haven’t you ever read God’s promises, such as is found in Matthew 28:18-20?  ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

 

God is in charge, I have no doubt of that.  God is with us – always has been and always will be.  Sometimes we can miss God’s handiwork as we become too preoccupied with other things, but that does not mean that He is not here.  It only means that we aren’t paying attention.  God used his creativity to create the “heavens and the earth,” and that should tell us a lot about God’s view of our worth to Him.  It should make us want to strive to get to know Him better and to use our creative abilities in ways that honor Him.  It should awaken in us the desire to look for something beautiful every day that God has created.

 

In the midst of all the questions raised in the creation account, one thing stands out as a certainty: God liked what He did.  “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”  Shouldn’t we like it, too?

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

 

 

 

 

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