On Creativity

Creativity Celebrates God

The creativity of God asks us some big questions with regard to the creativity of humankind. Peterson highlights the fact that 'create' is 'a word that is used in the bible exclusively with God as the subject'. With God, the word 'create' was about life itself, the planets, the world in which we live. How can we use this word to reflect a picture we paint or poem we write? For many of the practices that we look at it's clear that we operate in them by imitating Christ and the way he lived. In this realm, it's a little harder. We're not infinite, we're unable to create from nothing, and much as many would like to, we never will.

Michael Card suggests that imitation is not the way here, as 'we are not imitators of God in this dimension', and he reminds us of the temptation in this, that we become like 'little gods'. So, if imitation of God is not the way here, what is?

In my opinion, there is no doubt that men and women can create, and that this is the right word. The difference is simply that I can only create from what God has made. I love to write poetry, but my words, my ink, my paper were all made by God. My inspiration might come from creation, which he made, or my life and emotions, which he also crated. As Francis Schaeffer writes, for God it is different, he is an infinite God who 'can create out of nothing by His spoken word'. But 'create' rightly describes both, expressing newness, something being made from an idea and a concept. Maybe our ability to create is but a dull image of what God can do, but it is certainly still creating.

I remain even more convinced of this when I consider that we are 'made in the image of God' (Genesis 1:27). Creativity may not be an imitation of God, but it is an expression of the DNA of the Creator that he has placed in us. Michael Card explains, 'We are all fashioned in the image of God who is an artist.' When my daughters spend an afternoon painting beautiful pictures, I'm convinced they are expressing and witnessing to the Creator God who made us, expressing something of what is to be a human being.

If Michael Card is right, creativity can unlock so much for the Christian. It means that we can enjoy art that isn't made by a Christian. We can enjoy its technical ability, its view of colour or rhythm, its concept of the world when it connects with a Christian worldview. Hans Rookmaaker, in his famous 'Letter to a Christian Artist', suggests that there are 'norms for art that are part of God's creation'. As an artist taps into a unique view of colour or design, or gets a grip on complex forms, he is merely responding to something God has put there, and in that we can find the beauty of God.

Whilst praying in a prayer room in Guildford recently, I began to sing 'Grace Under Pressure' by the band Elbow. As I reflected on the song, it drew me to friends who were struggling and it called me deeper into prayer. I put the song on the CD player loud and I experienced one of the deepest prayer times I'd ever had. Yet Christians didn't write that song. Indeed, it ends with a swear word, something which might have led many not to listen to it at all. Yet in that song I found an expression of God's love for my friends and his life here on earth, which expressed immense 'grace under pressure'. Something deeply woven within the song is sacred, or that our creativity can't be misused. It often is. But I do believe it asks us to look beyond our churches, our worship songs and our bookshops to find the beauty of God in the creativity that exists in our world.

As we create, we celebrate the creativity of the artist God. In many established churches, a 'celebrant' will preside over the service of Communion. It's an interesting term for a service about the death of a man. Yet for us it is celebration. The Catholic Church's Eucharistic Prayer for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time expresses this theme:

Lord, we receive the sacrament which

celebrates the memory of the death

and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ.

Psalm 145:7 calls us to 'celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness'. God is to be celebrated. As we splash colour on a page as we enjoy the breadth and expression of words, as we compose a song, as we dance with all our might, as we cook a meal or enjoy expressive clothes, here we celebrate the God who made us and our world. Here we celebrate the God who is an artist - the beautiful God whom we love.

The job of a celebrant is also to respond, to respond in joy to all God has already done. In considering the creativity of God, all we can do in return is respond. When we express a picture of praise, a poem or song, the origin of our work is not in us, it's in what God has done, and it's in the Spirit's work in us.

We have the gospel of a creative God to declare. Our worship should reflect his nature, our prayers should, our lives should. We can't possibly be drab and dry, stale and bland, as we attempt to reveal the glories of God to our world. A creative God longs to create in our lives, to create even in our responses to him.

-- Punk Monk (p. 176)