The hobby of letterboxing, which I have mentioned before, combines spending time in God’s creation as well as doing a little creating of your own. As you hunt for the letterboxes, you get to see some very interesting things and places in nature and that always puts me in awe. The complexity and beauty of the plant and animal life is simply astounding. The natural world exists to bring glory to God and it does such a spectacular job of it that when I immerse myself in it, whether by watching a fantastic sunset or by listening to the hush of the forest around me, I completely lose myself in the face of something infinitely greater.
When I make letterboxes for others to find, I bring all of my own creative powers to bear, pathetic as they may be. The thought, time and effort that goes into carving a stamp, creating a handmade logbook, writing the clues and pulling the whole thing together on a theme exhausts the limits of my ability. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy every minute of it! And I am constantly on the lookout for new techniques, different materials and fresh ideas to improve the final product.
All of this made me think: why do we do things like this? Why do we feel the compulsion to create priceless watercolor paintings, or fabulous scrapbook pages, or colorful quilts, or hand carved walnut rocking horses, or delicious new recipes? Across history, nations and people of different walks of life and interests there runs the common thread of the need to create. I can see but one explanation: we were all created in the image of the Ultimate Creator. An image reflects the original. We reflect God, not as a mirror duplicates a reflection in every detail, but rather as a shadow reflects a shape as a dark and vague blur.
We imitate Him because we desire to be like Him. Just as a small child goes through the motions of mixing a cake or swinging a hammer in an effort to be like Mom or Dad, we create things in an effort to be like our Heavenly Father. For a child, imitating is an expression of love. For someone who holds Christ dear, creating something can mean the same expression of love. We love Him, therefore we want to be like Him.
This begs another question. Why do unbelievers create? Someone who does not love God, who is in fact his enemy, would certainly not choose to imitate him. They are still created in His image. I suspect the answer is hidden in that, somehow. But I confess, more thought is necessary before I can proceed.
*originally written 2/5/07
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1 comment:
Yes, created in His image, even if they do not choose to acknowledge that. It's something in the way he made us that makes us crave creating - in whatever form. Your post is perfectly titled. :-)
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