Creativity and the Arts #1

Tonight was the first night of my Replenish course "Creativity and the Arts" at church.

Week One: God - the Creative Genius.

God is creative, ingenious and awe-inspiring. He is the only one who can create out of nothing, no external resource is required. He needs no materials to create from, he needs no tools or materials to create with. He creates out of the invisible (Hebrews 11:3) His powerful word (Hebrews 11:3, Gen 1) and his will (Rev 4:11) are abundantly sufficient to create the heavens, the earth and humanity.

His creation tells me his is a God of goodness and perfection. Each day testifies that his purposeful creation is good (1:10; 12; 18; 21; 25; 31). God himself is perfect and he has fashioned everything accordingly. He didn't make a mistake and he didn't produce any waste or byproduct. He designed and made all things from the intricate root systems in rain-forests to the stars in the sky, to the hair, skin and eye colour of humans to the "plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit..."(1:11)

We have so many colours to enjoy on this earth and one of the good questions my dear friend Lizzie and I wonder about is whether there will be any new colours in heaven? Or do we get to enjoy all the colours of God's spectrum now?

This all tells me that God has no limit on his creativity. No one can match his imagination. Unlike us, God's ability to create is unstoppable and infinite - there are no limits for him. He creates species, types, varieties of trees, plants (strelizia, roses, agapanthus) and animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians...). And now think of the different kinds of roses and the different fragrance each one has. He is profuse. There is no one like our God.

God is truely worthy of our praise! Can you deny his magnificance, oppulence and existence? His eternal power and divine nature has been reveled to us in the abundance, beauty and handiwork of his creation. (Romans 1, Psalm 19). Please don't ignore him, for the world around us makes us without an excuse to acknowlege him as Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of all.

So what do you think it means for humanity, if God is this creative genius?
If we are made in his likeness what might this infer about us?
What is man that God is so mindful of him (Psalm 8)?