CREATIVE SPARKS

BE BRAVE. BE CURIOUS. CREATE!

Though few of us would call ourselves creative, that amazing grace gift is woven straight into our DNA. As we engage with God, He ignites our curiosity, waking us to wonder and the joy of possibility. Today, be brave. Be curious. Create!

CREATED TO CREATE

Creativity is written in our DNA by the One who created everything from nothing, the One who refracts three primary colors into nearly 10 million hues distinguishable by the human eye, the One who formed the human ear to discern almost 330,000 frequencies, the One who designed the human nose to detect more than one trillion scents.

We were created by the same One who created more than 8 million species of animals, 32,000 species of fish, one million species of insects, more than 9,000 species of birds, 60,000 species of trees, 12,000 species of grass, and 391,000 species of flowering plants.

The creativity of God is spectacular! We witness it in every breath of every hour of every single day. That same Creator breathed life into almost one hundred billion beloved humans since the beginning of time, each with a unique, one-of-a-kind personality and individually distinguishable fingerprints. “No two alike. There has never been another one just like this one, and there never will be again,” said Rev. Karl Schimpf as he blessed each new baby brought into his congregations.

CREATIVITY IS LIFELONG PURSUIT

Every person since the beginning of time has been, is now, and will be until the end of time, creative.

“A sacred touch, a sacred breath, a sacred thought, permeates the nature of man’s relationship with God. The sacredness of man’s existence springs forth from the moment of creation and reflects the image of God inherent in every person. It is by being made in the image and likeness of God that we possess reason and freedom, which come together in our capacity for creativity. All creation was thought of by God … The moment the spirit hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:2) and creation came into being was just the beginning.” (Ellen Mady)

We, the Body of Christ, are one great big, extravagant, creative community – and together, we represent the fullness of our Creator God here on earth. Yet relatively few of us would call ourselves creative.

Why?

Somewhere along the path to adulthood, many of us took off our creative hats, set them aside, and never looked back, investing our time and talents in “more productive” ways instead.

CREATIVE EXPRESSION IS A LABOR OF LOVE

We forget that creativity isn’t easy. It requires fewer lightning-bolt moments of inspiration and far more labor of love. It requires time poured out, courage plucked up, and curiosity piqued. It also involves practicing wonder and daring to dream. It requires determination and perseverance, working through sweat and tears, and often, experiencing a whole lot of failure.

Writing isn’t easy, even for published authors. Photographers joke that their first 10,000 images are practice, a statement more true than not. Master mechanics pour years into training and thousands of hard-earned dollars into tools. To earn first-chair concertmaster, a violinist will practice an average of 10,000 hours. A house isn’t designed or built (or even painted!) overnight.

For many of us, the creative journey is filled with missteps, flopped soufflés, dropped stitches, rejected manuscripts, major fumbles, and spectacular failures. Yet even in fear, even with anxiety crawling up the back of our necks, even in sorrow, even at our most abject, when we create, we reflect something of God back to God.

WE CREATE TO BE LIKE JESUS

Creativity is vulnerable. Fear of failure can tempt us to step away and play it safe. Yet each time we lean into the presence of Jesus as we wait on a table, pluck the guitar strings, plant a row of seeds, knead bread dough, throw a pot, cut or color a client’s hair, listen to a patient’s heartbeat or a little bit of their story, we fall a little more in love with God and His beloved creation.

As Mike Romero so aptly wrote, “It’s impossible to lack creativity while standing in the presence of the Creator.”

Creating gives profound joy.

We create because we were designed to create. It’s written in our DNA – and every time we create, we become a little more like Jesus.

In his book Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, Andy Crouch writes, “I wonder what we Christians are known for in the world outside our churches. Are we known as critics, consumers, copiers, condemners of culture? I’m afraid so. Why aren’t we known as cultivators — people who tend and nourish what is best in human culture, who do the hard and painstaking work to preserve the best of what people before us have done? Why aren’t we known as creators — people who dare to think and do something that has never been thought or done before, something that makes the world more welcoming and thrilling and beautiful?”

Today, be brave. Be curious. Create!

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