A Defense of Christian Creativity
Part 1- Biblical
From the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation, God shows himself to be Creator, Maker, and Sustainer. He is the maker of worlds, of skies and seas, of grass and trees, of time - day and night, and all the living things. Using words, he announces a world into life. “Let there be” and “Let us make,” bring order, beauty, and systems of life into being. From nothing, the Creator makes everything.
Then, God makes little “makers.”
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”Genesis 1:26-27, ESV
I’m not the first person to suggest that a function of image-bearing and dominion is creating and bringing order and beauty to the world. And it’s certainly only a facet of a much more beautiful and complicated understanding of the form and function of bearing God’s image. But beyond the first chapter of the Bible, we see a continued value and endorsement of creativity throughout the whole testament of Scripture. We see art as an encouraged form of worship in dance, music composition, and songwriting. Throughout the Old Testament, we read about seamstresses, engravers, designers, carpenters, stone masons, and metal workers that are “filled with skill” (Exodus 35:35) and called to make priestly garments “for glory and beauty” (Exodus 28:2) and recruited by Solomon to bring excellence and beauty to the temple (1 King’s 5:18.) A whole genre of God-breathed scripture–including Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon–is poetry. Jesus himself uses creative storytelling (parables) to teach and illustrate truth. We are commanded to sing praises, to look at creation and praise the creator, to lament and rejoice in the Psalms, and to “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8.) God has created us with heads and hearts to know Him and make Him known, to see the beauty of creation and ultimately the Creator.
Revelation completes this picture. If craftsmanship and creativity were important for Solomon’s temple, how much more so will it be in the New Earth? All broken things will be made whole, all tears will be wiped dry, and all pain and suffering fully redeemed in the new City. We will have an eternity for cultivating and creating, both experiencing God’s glory and glorifying him without the hindrances of this sin-stained world and our sin-sick bodies.
Until that wonderful day, like the exiles in Babylon, let us “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce,” (Jeremiah 29:5.) Let’s reflect and pursue the Creator by bringing beauty and order to a chaotic world. Let’s glorify the Maker by both what we make and the process of making. Let’s show this confused world what true beauty is in a language their hearts can’t help but understand and yearn for.
You were made for making.
