In the past few weeks, I have begun a season in my personal devotional time of getting back to the basics of the faith. As I’ve aimed to focus on the fundamentals of Scripture, I’ve had a refreshing encounter with the creation story. This is often an area that gets overlooked in regular study time and small group lessons, but as creative ministry leaders, it’s a good idea to regularly examine how our Father creates. We are made in His image and there is something to be said about seeking Him as we create.
His Ways Are Not Our Ways
As I read through the first couple chapters of Genesis, the first thing that popped out to me was God’s ability to create something great, step back, and admire its goodness in one swift motion. I don’t know about you, but that’s not what it looks like when I create something. For me, I’ll start with a goal in mind, make about 100 mistakes, and then be surprised when it comes out looking good. After this long, tedious process, I then step back and admire my work. (Then sometimes go back to make even more corrections.)
This significant difference in creative process paints a wonderful picture of God’s goodness. When God creates, it’s automatically good. Take a look around. Look at all the colors. Feel all of the textures. Hear all of the sounds. Smell all of the smells. He didn’t hold back when He created our world. God spoke the universe into existence and as He stepped back to gaze over His craftsmanship, He saw that it was good. Because of His omnipotence, there was no need for proofing, tweaking, or revisions. It simply was good, because it came from God.
After reading this, I immediately began imagining if all of my clients accepted my designs as-is on the first proof. Or better yet, if I could simply create something without ever hitting Cmd + Z. Yeah…that’s not going to happen. But that’s okay. As we create – whether it’s a graphic, video, song, or sermon – it’s going to take time and mistakes. It’s in that creative journey that we grow in our art, that we grow in our humanness.
A New Way To Approach The Creative Process
In the Genesis story, there are two significant differences between our Father’s method for creating all of the earth and His process for making man. Our triune God said “let us make man in our image and likeness” and it was good. In fact, we reflect God’s goodness more than any other creation. And to seemingly put the cherry on top of our uniqueness, Genesis 2 tells us that God breathed into man His own breath of life.
Because we are created in the image of God, we naturally reflect the goodness of God. Look no farther than the people around you and you’ll see that His glory is evident in His creation. But, there is incredible potential to take this to the next level if we will intentionally connect with our Heavenly Father. Our sin is infamous for corrupting this goodness and using our creativeness for our own purposes. But as we press into God, we are able to use our creativity for a higher calling.
As we take our journey from blank canvas to beautiful masterpiece, what would it look like if we got God involved? What if we started our projects in prayer? What if we asked our Creator to guide us in our creativity? In the same way that God breathed His breath of life into Adam, I believe that the Holy Spirit can bring a breath of fresh air to you as you create.
Final Thoughts
A great artist may not always be connected to God and a faithful follower of Christ may not always be a good artist. But, there is a noticeable “it factor” when you find an artist who is truly connected to God.
While we are limited to creating solely from references and provided resources, God legitimately creates from nothing. With Him in our corner, we can create content that is excellent, impacts lives, and points people to Him. You may even discover, as I did, that this method will bring you a little closer to Jesus with every project.
Great post! I love anything and everything about the creation story, because it explains God’s creative process, just like you said.
I also love how the first way that God reveals Himself to the world, is as a creator. Before we even know He’s holy, we know that He is creative. I think it also shows us how important our creating is to this world. These aren’t just trivial projects that we do for fun. God gave us the ability to create and to create beautifully (and it’s AMAZING that we didn’t lost that ability after the fall).
I agree with you 100% that we should press into God with our creativity. He cares about us and so He cares about what we create for this world. I think praying before and during a project is something that will not only change our art, but change our interactions with our art.
Great post, I could talk about this for eternity!
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