Here To Sacredly Create

Every day, God invites us to create with Him. After all, He is a creative God. And, whether you realize it or not, you are a creative human being. He could have created us to be uncreative, to be robotic by design, but instead, He decided to create us in His image. From the beginning of time, despite the knowledge that we very well might get things wrong, He invited us into the creative process.

Think about it for a moment. In the Garden of Eden, God created man and then He created woman. God created them for one another, to create life together. God could have chosen another way, but He didn’t. Instead, He decided to invite mankind into the creation process. God chose to give mankind a beautiful gift, that man and woman could enjoy together, to continue to bear His image in the earth. But, then, right there in the perfect Garden of Eden, mankind messed up. The creation fell into the hands of the enemy.

The gift to create is a very powerful gift. The enemy knew this. He still knows this. The enemy himself cannot create, but he can try and re-create what has been created by God. God created us for sacred, holy living. Everything that was created in the Garden of Eden was created for sacred use. Work, sex, the family unit, rest, the list goes on. Since the very beginning of time, it has been the enemy’s agenda to try and taint the very things that were created by God for sacred use. It is why, when we, as Christians, respond to pursue holiness and create according to God’s design, it is so beautiful. In fact, it’s pretty much a slap in the enemy’s face.

When it came to Adam and Eve’s story, God could have ended all of humanity’s story right then and there. He could have chosen death to be the final end. After all, he did warn Adam and Eve, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” (Genesis 2:16-17). Death was not something intended for Adam and Eve to experience, but now, because of their own sin, it was their, for lack of a better word, death sentence. But, instead, in His love, He chose to deliver man from his sins, giving man a second chance at life, to continue to create with Him.

It was out of pure love that God chose to kill one of His own beautiful creations to clothe Adam and Eve and cover their nakedness. “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin and clothed them,” (Genesis 3:21). To destroy your own creation so that another thing (an undeserving thing, might I add) may live is the very definition of selfless/sacrificial love. This mere act, of course, is a reflection of what was to take place thousands of years later when Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, would be sacrificed for our sins, so that, we too, may continue to live, create, and experience the greatest gift of all: salvation.

I don’t know if this is something you think about, but God didn’t have to create man. Yet, He did. He could have looked at His creation and decided that their own undoing was enough for Him to discard it, but He didn’t. Why? I think the answer is in what I first started out with. Mankind was created in His image. In fact, mankind is the only thing that God has ever created that has been created in His image. That is pretty crazy to think about. This is why, when the flood took place (as recorded in Genesis 7), God did not rid of humanity completely. There were other things that He had created that were demolished that day, never to be created again, but with mankind, He chose, in His perfect love, to have them remain.

A lot of the things that God created has been messed up by the human race, and yet, He still loves us. He is still creating. This thought is what originally inspired this post. When the thought first came to me, it hit me hard. The gift to create is a beautiful reflection of His love for us. And, while we may get it wrong from time to time, I am so thankful for God’s mercy that invites us back to sacredly create with Him.

Every time we create, it’s because God has invited you and I to be part of the creative process, to reflect His image in the earth. Every time I write a fiction story, play the piano, take photographs, write and teach, I get to be part of the creative process. And, I’m so very thankful. It’s truly one of the most beautiful gifts, one not to be taken for granted. I’m so thankful that when God created you and I, He created us with the ability to create and in some small way, reflect His love through our own creations. May we continue to create sacredly with God, in our work, in our homes, in our families, in our churches, wherever He leads, so that His glory may continue to be revealed in His creation.