The Importance of Creation

So… you think maybe I’m talking about Creation, as in, “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and Earth.”

Well…. yes.

And… no.

The other day, I turned into kid again for a while.  No, my wrinkles didn’t go away, and I can’t climb trees with the ease I used to be able to climb.  But I felt like a kid again for a while because…

I painted. (Not paint the house kind of painting, but on a canvas.)

I wrote.

I baked.

I took photos and edited them in Photoshop, and made them into labels for my honey jars.

I made things with my hands and my eyes, and with my heart.

I created.

It’s important to create. To make, build, invent, design and imagine.

Do you ever wonder why we create?  Why we’re driven to make things?

I may not be spot on theologically here, but my guess is it’s because we were made in our Father’s image.

And because He created, we do too.  It brought Him joy and satisfaction, so why wouldn’t it bring us that as well?

Think about it – didn’t happiness bubble up inside of you when, as an 6 year old, you opened up a new box of crayons?  Just the smell alone of a box of Crayolas takes me back to a time when my world was carefree.  When I opened that familiar box of yellow and green, waxy goodness, I immediately set to work making.

Making art.

Stick figures and sunshine rays and a box house with a triangle roof.  My mom and dad and our dog and cat.  Drawing those stick figures made me happy, and when I presented them to my mom, it made her happy too. (I think, but maybe not, and she just seemed pleased. I drew a lot.)

What about dying Easter eggs?  Or building mud and stick forts in the back yard?  Or “putting on a show” for your parents or grandparents?  You know, singing a song and doing cartwheels to a smattering of applause.

Or maybe you made beautiful sandcastles on the beach with a bucket and shovel.  Helped your elderly next-door-neighbor plant flowers between driveways, and when they bloomed?

Art.

Maybe you helped your grandfather whittle a stick into something resembling a dog.  And then it sat on his desk until the day he died, and knowing he kept it there reminds you that you were cherished.

It’s just my opinion, but when we create something, we experience the joy that we felt before our world became all about responsibility.  True, responsibility is a good thing, but there’s a small part of us that will always be 8 or 10 or that age when life was at its most ideal, before we were constrained by obligation.

While I wouldn’t want to trade my now for my 7 year old self, every once in a while, it’s good to recollect that boundless delight I once felt as that 7 year old.  Allowing our creativity to flow honors God, because when we find ourselves satisfied by making, by using the talents and gifts He gave us, we satisfy the Maker.