Creatively Bringing Order – Our Privilege and Responsibility

 

This year our big family Thanksgiving meal at my parent’s house has more guests than usual, so when I asked what I could bring to add to the meal, I expected to receive a list of food items similar to past years, just expanded – five pies instead of three, extra veggies, double cranberry relish. But my thoughtful parents, realizing that I had just come off an intense theater production week with my children, simply said “Bring fresh fruit.”

Well that’s easy, I thought. I was grateful for the simplicity of my assignment. But how to serve the fruit? I knew that it was mostly intended as a snack for the small children who would be attending. It needed to be presented in such a way that they could just pick up a piece and eat it as they waited for the meal. Should I just bring a big jumble of cut fruit?

Then I saw this:

sourceI knew I had my solution – a cute and creative way to bring order to fruity chaos!

While turning cut fruit into a fun display for a party is admittedly trivial, the principle behind it is rooted in scripture. Like our Heavenly Father, we were designed to be creative and bring order.

Today we read the final passage in our “God the Creator” series:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.  (Genesis 1:28-2:3)

As people made in the image of God, we each, in various ways, reflect His creative nature in our daily lives. In Genesis 1:28, God tells His first people, Adam and Eve, to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue the earth, and to have dominion over all living things. It is inherent to our purpose on this planet to creatively bring life and order to the world around us.

Life

God blesses us with the privilege of creating life. In families we are fruitful and bring new life into the world. Those called to foster and adopt children nurture new life in those whom they welcome into their families.

Humans cultivate and harvest food that sustains life. We care for animals that will feed and nourish our bodies. While you may not raise your own food, someone somewhere on planet Earth is raising it for you! Without it, you would not live.

Stewardship

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33 a NIV)

We are called to be creative stewards, or caretakers, of the physical world. We weed our gardens. We mow our lawns. We create homes that are functional. While the physical world tends toward entropy (a gradual decline in order) it is our privilege and our responsibility to order and care for the world around us.

Our responsibility to be good stewards extends beyond the physical. As parents we steward our children by teaching them about God and His Word, and training them in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). As people in our communities, when we see others’ needs, we seek ways to meet them. We are God’s ambassadors of peace.

Rest

Like God, in Whose image we were made, we are creators. You and I create life and order by attending to the smallest details of our lives.

And, like God, we rest. In fact your brain is often more creative when at rest. This is why you get fabulous ideas in the shower or while drifting off to sleep. Our creative undertakings are blessed by rest.

Rest is so important that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Thus began the Sabbath, the observance of which is the fourth commandment.

Thankful

On Thanksgiving morning, as I turn my big pile of cut fruit into a colorful turkey on a platter, I will be thinking of all the things for which I am thankful. That sweet smelling sticky fruit will remind me how much joy it brings me that my creative Heavenly Father made such a colorful and interesting world for us.

Our God of vivid sunsets and soft kittens created sounds that can be turned into glorious symphonies. He created chilly oceans for me to dip my toes in and dolphins to splash in them. He created my daughter’s twinkling brown eyes and my son’s dimples. He made a beautiful world with bright colors and smells and sounds, and gave you and me the privilege of playing with them all and making even more beauty.

And most wonderful of all, He gave us Jesus — my hope and your hope. Because of whom we can not only enjoy the beauty and creativity of this life, but can confidently look forward to eternity with God. May your heart be truly thankful today, rejoicing in the gifts before you and the promise to come!

For Further Study

1) Did anything change in God’s direction to humans after the fall? Compare Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:1. Why do you think these verses are different?
2) In what unique ways did God design you personally for creativity and bringing order?
3) Read Genesis 2:1-3 and Exodus 20:8-11. How do you observe rest in your week?

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