My son, who loves to spend time drawing, has a hard time with his drawings not turning out exactly how he envisioned them in his mind. For a long time, he would only spend time drawing if I was going to draw with him and draw everything the ‘‘right way.’’
Opportunities to Create
It has only been within the past six months or so that a switch has flipped, and he has figured out how to create and manifest some of his own ideas into drawings that we can recognize without a detailed explanation from him. His confidence in being able to create has been developing and growing in ways we could not have known, until one day when I found a picture of a tractor and a helicopter that actually looked like a tractor and a helicopter.
On the other hand, my daughter creates in a much less structured fashion. She is quick to use the ‘‘wrong’’ color to color a picture of a tree or sunshine. If she is painting, she doesn’t think twice about mixing all of her paints together and on top of each other. She is happy to create for the sake of creating without a specific end goal in mind.
The Ultimate Creator
As I prepare and set up opportunities for my little ones to create, I always marvel at the difference in how we create compared to God. When God created, He spoke. That was it. He did not have to gather up markers, crayons, papers, paints, paintbrushes, smocks, glue sticks, tape, and scissors. He just spoke, and from His words came colors, sounds, textures, galaxies, oceans, and more. Everything was created exactly the way He wanted, with the ‘‘right’’ colors in all of the right places.
Even better than how He created is that when He was done creating, He was not finding the missing marker caps or scrubbing paint off of His floor. He was admiring what He created and then He rested. It was good.
Taking time to create is an opportunity to learn more about who God is. Maybe the way you create is through music or writing instead of drawing and painting. Maybe the way you create feels imperfect and messy. I know that when I sit down to write, my own thoughts are similar to my son’s about his creating: I want what I create and write to turn out exactly how I envisioned it in my mind. I want it to be done the ‘‘right way.’’ Ultimately, I want what I create to be perfect. But you don’t need to be a creator for very long (my oldest is four), to know that we won’t always create everything the ‘‘right way,’’ even with a little help. When we create, we will always have to explain some aspect of our creation to someone because they inevitably won’t ‘get it.’ When we create, we will inevitably mess something up, use the wrong color, hit the wrong note, or choose the wrong word. But in our own struggle to create, our hearts can be pointed toward the Creator.
A New Masterpiece
This side of the new heaven and new earth, our creations will always come up short. But the Creator, who spoke the details into existence, will once again create a masterpiece, and this masterpiece will be perfect. Everything in the perfect spot, everything perfectly arranged, everything perfectly woven together. This perfect picture I am describing includes you, too. In the new heavens and the new earth, God will perfect you in both body and soul. What will that look like? I don’t know. But I do know that every day my son and daughter create something is one day closer to when we, together, will see the Creator face to face. Oh, and my son desperately hopes that there will be tractors and helicopters here.
Keep reading about God by using this month’s Everyday Faith Calendar. Each day features a short reading and activity prompt to keep the conversation of faith going in your family.
