Being created in His image of my CREATOR God sometimes surprises me. I make quilts. One recent finish left several small triangle pieces. I sewed them together into several rectangles but without a plan for them. Last night we were praying with friends. My mind was on that when suddenly a quilt design popped into my head that used those little pieces. I quickly sketched it and returned to praying, rather startled because this was not on my mind at all, not then or for days.
I’ve studied and posted about God as Creator before but never lose my fascination with creation and God’s creative power. These verses from Genesis sum it up:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth . . . . So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:1;21;27)
An image in this case cannot be a physical likeness for God is spirit, not flesh and bone, yet He created people that somehow are like Him. Sin marred that image so instead of being a clear reflection of what God is like, humans are iffy in that department. It comes out in various ways, like love for family, music and art and of course, creativity. (Sin shows up in hate, selfishness, violence, warped values, greed . . . the list is long.)
It is easy to understand why some folks love going into the wilderness and experiencing awe of what surrounds them. Psalm 148 lists those marvels with the psalmist saying, “Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created.”
Isaiah 45:18 tells me how intentional God is. He designed this world to be filled with the wonders that I see, both when in the forest or watching a documentary about undersea creatures. “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
Isaiah 40:26 points me to the stars: “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”
Isaiah 45:7 reminds me that God created intangible things also and controls events. He says, “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” The light is literal but He also enlightens my mind so I can understand spiritual matters. Well-being is so easily attributed to God (think of Thanksgiving coming soon) yet He also creates calamity and even uses it for good, just as He promises in Romans 8:28-29.
Much of what God does is unseen, but just because our human eyes can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or is not happening. Think of wind, the color in the sky, and other phenomena that help us to look beyond what our eyes can see.
Romans 1:20. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
The last part of this verse says that anyone who doubts the existence of God has no excuse because His creation is shouting that He designed it all.
I cannot take a bunch of parts such as computer components, put them in a bag and shake it expecting over time that I will have a working laptop. Even if one shake joins the parts, the next one would separate them. The mind of man cannot use any human reasoning to say that God does not exist. No art, no music, no cookies or steak dinner falls out of the cupboard and creates itself.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Why does a walk in the forest or along a beach, or a climb in the mountains, or a sail on the ocean restore my soul? All the sinful human stuff, plans, ideas, interferences, meanness, and selfishness is pushed aside by the grandeur of what God has done. I see beyond the pettiness of life, beyond my own smallness, beyond my creative ability, and gaze at the Source — of the snow on Rocky Mountain peaks, of trees growing in their stone faces, of geese who know when to fly north and return south. I watch ants carry food ten times their size and see the gossamer wings of dragonflies. All this reminds me of the God who speaks them into existence, the God to whom I pray and answers my heart’s requests. I am to worship Him in Spirit and in truth . . . and as creative as we are, our man-made stuff just doesn’t make that happen.
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