Created to Create

“In the beginning God created …” Such a statement acknowledges God first as creator. Later in Genesis 1, we read, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness …’” God first created, then created creators.

If we are made in the image of God and made in His likeness then that’s an indicator to us that we ourselves are also creators. God created the beauty of creation — He, God Himself, is the master artist and He commissions us as His artists.

Because God created us to be creators, His ability has been granted to us to create as He did.  God created something out of nothing.  All of Genesis 1 points to God creating out of nothing — nothing except the power of His voice.

We hear the first prophetic statements out of Genesis 1. “Let there be … and there was …” God has granted us as His sons and daughters the same prophetic ability to create something out of nothing. Whether we create out of words, prayers, voices, instruments, paint brushes, chisels or bodies in movement, we all can use any of our abilities to create something out of nothing.

The question left standing is, “What will we create?” There are choices in our creation — life or death, beauty or distortion, heaven or earth. Will our art glorify Him or glorify our gift?

N.T. Wright stated in his book Surprised by Hope, “Genuine art is thus itself a response to the beauty of creation, which itself is a pointer to the beauty of God.” May what we create point to Him.

Art that points to the beauty of the great artist Himself is the goal.  However, art at its best should also draw attention to the reality of the way things are and to the hope of the way things will be.

From Surprised by Hope, “Creation is good, but it is not God. It is beautiful, but its beauty is at present transient. It is in pain, but that pain is taken into the very heart of God and becomes part of the pain of new birth. The beauty of creation, to which art responds and which it tries to express, imitate, and highlight, is not simply the beauty it possesses in itself but the beauty it possesses in view of what is promised to it … We are committed to describing the world not just as it should be, not just as it is, but as — by God’s grace alone! — one day will be. And we should never forget that when Jesus rose from the dead … the marks of the nails were not just visible on his hands and feet. They were the way he was to be identified. When art comes to terms with both the wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection and learns how to express and respond to both at once, we will be on the way to a fresh vision, a fresh mission.”

Just as the sacrifice of the cross made a way for the glory of the resurrection, so art should embody both the present reality and the promise of what is yet to come. Just as God created men out of dust — let art reflect His methods — creating something out of nothing.