God is Creative

by Marcie Dennis

Colossians 1:16 “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

God is the Ultimate Creator

The very opening chapter of the Bible is all about how God created the world. In chapter two we get the details surrounding his creation of man and women. Throughout the rest of scripture there are numerous references to what he did in Genesis One. God told the waves where to stop, the sky where to end, he keeps storehouses of snow and hail. He feeds the lions and the ravens because he cares for the mighty and the weak. He paints the sunrises and sunsets each day with brand new strokes of majesty. And it goes on, God created everything to ever exist, and that includes you very specifically.

Psalm 139:13-16

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

God created you very specifically to reflect his image. In Latin, this is imago deo which means the “image of God”. In this, when you were born and as you learned, you would be able to reflect God out into the world around you. Now, we are born with a sinful nature due to the folly of Adam and Eve, but we have the image of God pressed into our being, yearning to come forth and consume all that we are. We were created for a purpose. We find that purpose along the way to becoming who he created us to be, not whomever the world says we should be. This is one of the reasons it’s so important to study the character of God. The more truth we know about him, the more we can properly reflect him and his intended creation to the world.

Creativity Looks Different in Each of Us

Everybody has some spark of creativity in them because we as the imago deo were made to be creative like God. It may not be what we traditionally think of as creative: artists, musicians, writers and so on. But it could be someone who finds a creative solution to a math problem that sends man to the moon and cures diseases. Or it could be someone who gets creative when solving a crime and bringing justice to someone who’s been wronged. You are creative and what you create when working out of your natural born skill set is a good and beautiful thing.

I reflect God as Creator in several ways. I create art when I paint or do wood burning projects. I create future responsible citizens as I raise my children that God has blessed me with. I created a family and a home with the people, spaces, and resources I have been given. I create organization with my mad Excel skills and extensive folders and lists. I create humor with a well-timed joke, funny face, or silly antics. I create good work with my self-discipline and work ethic. I create fashion with my clothing and accessory choices. I create beauty with words of truth and encouragement. I create friendships with my loyalty, love and acceptance. I create good things because of God in me.

Have you heard the saying “You’ll find what you’re looking for”? Well, I agree with it, so go looking for the creativity that God put inside of you, and I guarantee you’ll find it! You just may have to get creative with your thinking. Creativity is individualized to you and while there may be a million writers in the world and half of them could be writing on the same topic, they are not all writing the exact same thing. Each of us brings a unique voice and perspective to the world based upon the history of our lives and the choices we make each day. God made each of us with a purpose and that means there is room for every one of us to take up space in this world and have a voice all our own. That in and of itself is a beautiful thing. Once again, God is in the details and creating unique beauty in and through you.

God Only Creates Good Things

God is not only creative, but He can only create good things. 1 Timothy 4:4 says “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude;”

That means when God created you, it was good and therefore you are good as God intended you to be. Genesis 1:31 says “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” I’d like to point out that on the first five days God looked at what he had created and said, “It was good.” But when he created man and women, he said “it was very good.” God views us as very good in the scope of the amazing planet that we live on with all its beautiful complexities. We are set apart as his masterpiece, the best part of creation. You are very good darling.

You can never go so far from that original intent that you lose all goodness and God can’t bring you back to where he wants you. God will always take you back and redeem whatever is broken inside you and restore his creation to his intended beauty. God doesn’t create junk and he doesn’t create trash or broken things. “Everything created by God is good...” and that includes you.

There Is Beauty in the Darkness

Now I know that in different seasons, it’s hard to see that what God has created is good. The world in all spheres of life has been hectic, difficult, and hurtful. From the world pandemic to political and social unrest, school shootings and massive loss of loved ones for various reasons, it’s easy to question if the world truly has any good left in it at all. Speaking as someone who has lived through various parts of these tragedies and lost a beloved father at a young age, I can tell you I understand the deep ache we can feel inside at the loss of so much.

I want to assure you though that while this world is filled with evil because Satan is having his hay-day, the time is coming when that will end. Now we’re not delving into the end times here, that’s not the point of this devotional today. However, I want you to rest assured that one day Good will Triumph over Evil Forever, The End, Amen. That is a promise straight from Revelation 20:7-10, go check it out.

Until then however, how can we practice seeing the good of God’s creation? I tend to look at the little things in everyday that are good. I start a gratitude journal and thank God to be alive. I thank him for clothes, food, shelter, family, my skills, my home, my job, my Bible. I thank God for who He is apart from all the evil in the world. I thank him for his promise to destroy Satan and bring us home to a place with no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more tears (Revelation 21:4). I thank God for the majesty of All that he has created in this world! I marvel at how small I am and how vast and infinite he is.

When I do this, I gain perspective. I see the original intent of God’s creation and the beauty that is still to be found in even the darkest of times in my life. We still have to acknowledge that sin has distorted our world and God’s original intent in a lot of ways, but God is a creative genius and able to restore all that is broken. I love watching him work out everything for our good. He’s way more clever than I am!

Conclusion:

God created the heavens and the earth with intention, and he created you with that same intention. God believes you are very good, and he sees the beauty in you. Even when you’re sitting in a stage of life that feels dark, there is good in creation to be found. He created you to be uniquely creative and he wants you to use the skills he gave you. When you do, you are reflecting his light and image into the world. Doing that brings such pleasure to your creator and he wants to rejoice with you in that.

Growing our faith in Christ is a lifelong journey because this side of heaven we will never achieve perfection. Learning about God as creator is just one step to acknowledging that there is good in this world, even when it all seems dark. If even the sparrows have enough to eat and the flowers are so beautifully adorned, how much more does he care about us and provide for us in our needs because he cares about his creation? He created you for a purpose.

Prayer:

Elohim, Our Creator,

We thank you for today for creating this beautiful and crazy world we get to live in. We thank you that we are formed in your image and have your character waiting to swell within in and burst forth your light. We thank you that we are each uniquely made to create in our own special ways. We thank you that even in darkness you have made beautiful things. We ask you to show us the beauty in today, especially when we are sitting in the midst of a really difficult time. We ask you to work on a creative way to pull us up and pull us out. Please heal us and the brokenness in the world so that we may see the glory of your creation again. Please use me and my creativity today in such a way that I can reflect your beauty to those around me. I love you, Lord.

Amen.

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Hey sweet lady, we want to take a quick minute to guide your next steps with the scripture and application part. We believe that in order to truly grow closer to God, we need to spend time dwelling on what he’s trying to teach us and not rush through it. We encourage you to spend a full week dwelling on this devotional and all it has to offer you. That means you can save some of the scripture passages for another day or re-read them in the week. We also encourage you to take your time with the application part. You can sit in each prompt until you feel God revealing his truths to you. Don’t rush, take time to truly get to know him better by sitting in what he’s trying to teach you this week. That's where your faith will grow.

Scripture for Deeper Study:

• Isaiah 45:18-19

• Colossians 1:13-23

• John 1:1-18

• Psalm 139:13-18

Application:

• Journal the ways that God has made you creative.

• For fun, read Job 38 and reflect on our bold God and marvel at all he has created and how infinite his power is.

• Create something this week that brings you joy, not something you already have to create, but something that you want to create. See how beautifully God has created you!

• Journal about the times you can look back and see where God created something good out of darkness in your life.