Making A Memory – My Musings on the Origins of Creativity, Part Two

For me, creativity is deeply connected with my Christian faith. I believe that we’re each fearfully and wonderfully made by God, who loves us, values us, and gives us each unique gifts and talents. Creativity is one of those gifts.  I realize now, however, that I’ve unconsciously assumed creativity is a special, elusive gift that only some people get and others don’t. This assumption framed a large set of limitations I’ve placed on myself. So while I was slowly stitching the circles on the background I was thinking about creativity, wishing I felt certain that I really had this coveted gift, when Genesis 1:1 popped into my head. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Now certainly I’ve thought about that verse before. God created (verb); He is the Creator (noun). My usual perspective on the verse has been as a statement about God’s actions and power, and a cursory explanation of where the universe came from – including people and their gifts. This time though, I was reminded that the verse is also an important assertion about the character of God. He is creative (adjective). Not only that, it struck me that this premise is so important that we’re told about it in the very first verse of the Bible before we learn anything else about Him.

I decided I needed to review the beginning of Genesis, focusing on the idea of God as creative (adjective).  I read through His perfect creative process. God worked at creating, enjoyed the act of creating, was pleased with his creation, and made good things like light and dark, day and night, the land and sea, vegetation, all the varied living creatures, the sun, moon, stars, and seasons. He’s the world’s first and greatest Artist with an amazing body of creative work. It was just really cool to imagine God working away in His studio, creating this beautiful world we live in, trying new ideas, making a bunch of weird, new stuff, enjoying and loving his creation, and finding great satisfaction in what He made.

As I kept reading in Genesis I discovered a new way for me to think about the gift of creativity. I’ll tell you more about that next time.