Day 3: I'm thankful for the ability to create.

On the season's first crisp, cool morning like today, I am always reminded of "what might have been." When I was in the 3rd grade my mother would wake me up every morning to take a shower. I had to walk all the way to the other side of the house and for some reason it was way colder over there. The commode seat was painfully cold! I distinctly recall the moment that I invented the commode seat warmer. I told mom about it and that there should be one. Sadly, I was eight and did not know how to get a patent. So every November when the shouts of "Woah!" or "Aye-yai-yai!" come from the bathroom, I can only imagine what my life would be like if  my invention had become reality. If you love this idea, it can become a reality for you. Apparently someone knows how to follow their dream. Get your toastie tush here.

When I think about the toasty tush idea, I realize that from very early on I had a desire to create things. More than just things,  but also a desire to create ideas and stories and relationships. The more that I learn about my Creator, the more this innate desire makes sense. Indeed we were created by a Creator and in the image of a Creator, therefor we are prone to create. Culture is proof of this, according to Andy Crouch, who wrote a hugely important book entitled Culture Making. He says, "Culture is, first of all, the name for our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it's given to us and make something else. This is the original insight of the writer of Genesis when he says that human beings were made in God's image: just like the original Creator, we are creators."

I am a creator. I was made to be. We all were. When people say, "I'm just not creative..." that's balogna! Your Creator says you are (Genesis 1:27).  Creativity is simply taking what you have, right where you are and making something with it. Creativity might mean coming up with new and fun ways to engage your children in meaningful conversation. It could be as simple as starting a new dialogue "around the water cooler" that promotes a positive way of thinking about the high calling of our daily work. It could mean that you invent the most amazing product of this century and when people look at you, you point to your Creator. We have to think, and strive to be creators. It's not easy, but engaging in creativity is our responsibility. It's an amazing tool God has given us to show the world who He is.

Sometimes I think we (especially women) confuse being "crafty" and being "creative." There is absolutely nothing wrong with being crafty--that means having the ability to execute a plan. That can be a perfectly good thing. But, it is very different than being creative (which remember, we all are) Creative means:

1) marked by the ability or power to create
2) having the quality of something created rather than imitated.

Creativity does not equal "crafty." Ironically, crafty is a word used to describe Satan (Genesis 3:1). Hmm. Satan uses all of God's ideas and tweaks them just a tiny bit. But he can't come up with any of his own material. His only plan is to diminish the glory of God and is dang good at executing it.  I think a huge way that he does this is by convincing people that they aren't creative. That they are like him. So they never try to make anything of the world around them. They settle and they copy. Because they believe that's all they are capable of. That's a lie. God's creation has been given the ability to not only execute a plan but to create. Not to copy the world around us but to create by using the things that the ultimate Creator has made out of nothing! This is a wonderfully exciting picture of how God desires to use his people.

In our efforts to create, let this always be our hearts aim--To point back to our Creator. To point others to our Creator. To use this mind and the hands that God has given us to bring him glory in different, special, creative ways! What an offering that would be.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Psalm 90:17