Creativity and Community

Genesis chapters 1 and 2 give us two accounts of Creation- chapter 1 is the big picture, written as poetry with the rhythm and shape of the writing mirroring the order and beauty of the act of creation. Chapter 2 tells a story, and in doing so reveals some ideas about the people we were created to be.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Genesis 2:15

 One of the first things we learn about God from Genesis is that He is a creator. He creates the world with abundance, beauty, extravagance and at the same time, purpose and order. When man is made in His image, he is also given the task of creating beauty and order, in the garden of Eden.

Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.'  Genesis 2:18

 At the beginning of John's gospel we read that God was not alone when He created the world- God was three persons, Father, Son and Spirit. Man also was not created to be alone- first God creates animals to surround him and finally a woman to be his companion.

At the beginning of time, humans are given a purpose and a community. They are created to bring beauty, order and productivity to their world, and to do it together. These humans are not robots, robbed of choice and options- rather, they are placed into the ideal conditions for flourishing. They have each other, and they have unimaginable potential all around them.

In whatever you do today, look for echoes of these things....opportunities to be creative, to bring beauty and order to where you work, live or visit; and celebrate the people that are alongside you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

advent day two

Advent Day TWO~ Every one of you, hide among the rocks and in the ground, Because the LORD is fearsome, marvelous, and glorious. When the LORD comes, everyone who is proud will be made humble, And the LORD alone will be honoured. The LORD All-Powerful has chosen a day When those who are proud and conceited will be put down Isaiah 2: 10-12 What are we waiting for? Its good to remind ourselves  of who God is. What words would you use to describe God? Glorious?...Marvellous?...Fearsome? Try to spend some time today in a place where you can see something of God’s glory– it might be at the sea, under a starry night sky, watching a sunset or down on your hands and knees with the insects. God created this world we live in. He controls it, orders it, sustains it. He breathed life into our bodies– and He will decide when life leaves us. This is the LORD we worship. And he has chosen a day to return to earth in unmistakable power and glory. The angel choirs who sang to shephe...
Read more

Peter- walking a rocky road

Sometimes reading self help books or well-meaning blogs can make us feel that adopting a regime, a mantra or a new habit will lead to measurable results in a steadily increasing way. We feel as if we should be drawing a progress chart that climbs steadily upwards- but real life is just not like that. Maybe that's why so many of us find Peter an encouraging character in Scripture. When Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter, meaning the Rock, we cheer for him as we see Jesus recognising his strength of character. Jesus replied,  ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter,   and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades [  will not overcome it.   I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be  bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be   loosed in heaven.’   Then he ordered his...
Read more

Isaiah 8

Why do people not read the Old Testament more? I imagine it's because of passages like this one- it's full of incomprehensible Hebrew names and places, which seem to have had some sort of significance to the first people to read them, but are off-putting to us today. Is the only way to read a passage like this to get out a concordance or commentary, and work out who all these people are? Or should we just ignore the stuff we don't understand, and skip straight to a verse or two that we can make sense of? One thing that reading through Isaiah one chapter at a time is showing me, is that the second option is not a valid one. the bits we might chose to pull out rarely mean what we might expect them to. It is worth pausing and asking what message they gave to the people of the time- even if that doesn't seem to be a message that is relevant to us today. This is a book that tells us about God, not offers us a quick fix for our problems and concerns. So in the middle of this ...
Read more