Randy Alcorn asserts that the Lord bestowed creativity upon people before sin came into the world. Once we sinned, creativity became distorted, yet we are still gifted to create in a wide variety of ways. The Lord left many indications in Scripture.
Creativity Starts with God
The Father is creative: He designed and brought the entire earth to life with all its features and creatures, only resting after he had “created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). He experienced joy too — for “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (v. 31).
Scripture features several instances where God’s people made beautiful items such as clothing and buildings or produced exquisite music.
Psalm 150:4 urges God’s people to “praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!” The Lord loves worshipful music, joyfully performed by those who adore him.
The Lord designed his people to be creators: “He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver — by any sort of workman or skilled designer” (Exodus 35:35).
Painting, writing, dancing, and singing are what we typically associate with an artistic person, but carpentry, cooking, and other jobs involve artistry too. In fact, any time a person is building, he is creating, although this work only feels like creativity when it is accomplished in a spirit of joy.
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men (Proverbs 22:29).
Whatever profession a believer is engaged in, to the best of his or her ability, with integrity, and in a spirit of thankfulness, he or she works for the King and is creating something, just like their Father. The Lord was the first and best creator, but since we are made in his image, we also create.
A Creative Worshiper
Randy Alcorn points out that the first individual named in Scripture as a creative person, Bezalel, was no painter or harp player. “God gifted and called Bezalel to be a skilled laborer, a master craftsman, a God-glorifying artist. Bezalel and Oholiab were not only to create works of art but also to train apprentices to do so. The gifting and calling were from God.”
Society has set famous artists on a pedestal — people who write and perform popular music become objects of secular worship, treasured for the beauty of their work. Bestselling authors might live in mansions while famous actors attract adoring fans for their efforts.
But Scripture focuses our attention on those who not only produce something beautiful but also redirect attention to the glory of God and teach others.
Randy Alcorn argues that “those who imagine that spirituality is something ethereal and invisible — unrelated to our physical skills, creativity, and cultural development — fail to understand Scripture.”
They do not see how much beautiful and fine detail was included in God’s instructions for building the Tabernacle, for instance.
Bezalel made the ark of the covenant and many other fine and important features of the Tabernacle, including holy oil (Exodus 37).
With his assistant Oholiab, he made “the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting” (Exodus 38:8).
Exploring all that Bezalel and Oholiab accomplished, either themselves or as supervisors of the work of others, reveals an extensive list and devoted attention to detail. “The Master Designer goes into great detail in His instructions for building the Tabernacle.”
Alcorn reminds us. There is no way they could have done it all alone, but whatever they achieved was “according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses.”
Following these instructions, “the people of Israel had done all the work. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them” (Exodus 39:42-43).
Alcorn reminds us that creativity is not a closed circle of tightly guarded secrets clutched with fierce and greedy pride in order for one to produce something which will give him or her personal glory; God-given creativity invites others to learn according to their gifts in order to joyfully serve in ways which please the Lord, serve some purpose in worship, and edify others. Godly creativity points to Jesus.
Bezalel and Oholiab trained apprentices for the glory of God. A creative mind envisions the sights, smells, and sounds of their work and relays these sensations to others seeking to know God and his Word better.
A Legacy of Faith
While to some, the arts are non-essential and potentially hedonistic if pursued self-indulgently, the arts serve an important function in God’s purposes for us right now.
Perhaps you forget the name of the artist who wrote a song that you sing at church and even hum in the car or a tune to which scriptural truth was set and which allows you to remember a verse better, but that song has been a help to you. You remember that the song was designed to teach you something about Jesus.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).
This is no small thing but an aid to spiritual nourishment. In a time without printers or photocopiers, when not everyone could read, and the oral transmission of information was essential, singing the Word of God helped people to hold onto it.
And those songs affected the hearts of the listener, encouraging “thankfulness,” as Paul says. This is a key part of making creativity a worshipful thing: if something we devise or build or perform is satisfying and beautiful, all credit goes to God; we thank him for the inspiration that led to our creativity.
Note also that Paul says the word is not only transmitted but is a living thing — it “dwells richly” inside of a person. There is a creative force behind anything which is alive and a creative force behind the teaching methods which enable people to hear, learn, remember, and spread the hopeful message — the Good News, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Creativity gives shape and physical substance to information about the heart of God, something one can see in the actions of his followers but also in the buildings, paintings, and sculptures they create; and hear in the songs and stories they share.
After all, as Alcorn reminds us, Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, was a carpenter, a “maker,” as Alcorn puts it. “God is a maker. [...] God made us, His image-bearers, to be makers. We’ll never cease to be makers. When we die, we won’t leave behind our creativity, but only what hinders our ability to honor God through what we create.”
Creative Conclusion for Christians
Alcorn invites believers to imagine what we will accomplish creatively in eternity for God’s glory once we enter the Kingdom. “He will surely not give us less creativity in heaven but more, unmarred by sin, unlimited by mortality. We will compose, write, paint, carve, build, plant, and grow.”
For God’s pleasure, to his eternal glory, we will make beautiful sounds, attractive sculptures, enticing food, and useful structures, none of which will fail to serve the Lord and please him.
Right now, we can still work with all of our hearts to ensure that everything we make — a flower bed, cake, or work of art — gives the Lord pleasure.
For further reading:
How Our Creative God Is Full of Color
Do Our Words Have Creative Power?
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