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Wanna Commune with God? Create!

Wanna Commune with God? Create!

Last updated on: July 21, 2007 at 1:42 pm by John Shore

Wanna Commune with God? Create! 2007-07-21T13:42:55-08:00 John Shore

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If there’s one thing we can say about God, it’s that he is huge on creating. Creating is what God does. Love is what God is; designing and animating (as in sparking to life, not … doodling) is what God does.

Whoo-hoo!

I mean, look the giraffe. If that doesn’t say, “I’m deeply enamored of radical design,” I can’t imagine what does.

The other day I saw my first Actual Ostrich. Talk about … challenging your concept of “bird.” For a second there, gazing at this feathered monster, it felt like I was at church. Except no one at church has ever suddenly tried to eat my head.

Point is: God is the ultimate in Creative Geniuses. And that must mean that he want us to create, too. If God made us in his image, and if as the Holy Spirit he put himself inside of us in order to facilitate our growing to be as much like him as possible, then he must love it when we essentially imitate him, and create.

By all accounts, Picasso wasn’t exactly what you’d call a born Welcome Wagon host. But I’ll bet you anything he had a special place in God’s heart. I’ll bet after he passed from this life to the next, God said to Picasso, “Man, you had some personality issues. But outstanding artwork! Way to really stick with and develop your individual vision! And those striped shirts you always wore! I loved it!”

Okay, maybe God didn’t say that to Picasso. Who knows? God’s a mystery. But what’s not mysterious about God is that it is clearly his nature to create.

So sometime, do it yourself. Sometime, forget for a bit that you’re an adult–that you’re someone who always knows how things are, or how everything’s supposed to be. God wants us to be like children before him, so sometime forget all that adult stuff, and let yourself once again become the child you used to be. Once more become that little kid who used to draw, or who loved goofing around with Play-Doh, or who was forever singing some song they made up–become again the child who used to act, build, dance, paint.

Go inside, to the child you used to be, and invite him or her out to play again. And by all means refuse to worry about if whatever you create is “good” or not–that’s an oppressive adult judgment that has no place in the act of joyously sharing with God his vibrant, creative spirit.

Kids never care if what they make is “good.” They create for the simple joy of taking what’s there and making something new out of it.

They create, and explore their creativity, because that’s what God does–and in spirit they’re still near to him.

Create!

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