Lent day 33 - creativity

Was at a craft fair yesterday.  It was quite a big one and there were all sorts of things on display.  People had been painting, felting, knitting, embroidering, making cards, jewellery, candles, soaps, taking photographs, doing calligraphy...... it was all very inspiring.   The craft fair was put on by a large church in Belfast which has a history of supporting the arts.  The money they raised was being sent to missions.  Quite a few of the stalls were selling things either made by, or in support of, overseas projects.   The stall next to me was selling lovely needlework made by ladies in India and all the profits went back to their business to help lift them out of poverty.  I love the fact that faith and creativity can combine to combat social inequality and injustice.

The arts have always had the power to lift people.  Not just out of poverty in a really practical way, but lift spirits and hearts.  I suppose I've always been creative - I come from a musical family and we were always good with words, telling stories and writing.   But I came to painting and other crafty stuff really late - I was in my 40s before it occurred to me to even have a go.

I have found the very act of making things to be both incredibly therapeutic - you really cant think about anything else when you are painting a picture - and satisfying.  It is really very wonderful to start with a blank page and end with something you have created which wasn't there before.   Imagine how God felt when He started with a swirling nothingness and began to create life.  You don't have to be good at it.  That's not the point.  Beauty really and honestly is in the eye of the beholder.  What you consider to be a daub or a scribble someone else is guaranteed to think is great.  Why?  Because art speaks in the same way God speaks.   It whispers to people's hearts in unique ways.  That is why two people looking at the same painting can react in utterly opposing ways.   It's why a canvas painted black can be considered a work of genius by some and a waste of time by others.  Or an unmade bed.  Or a shark in a tank.   Or your doodle on the back of an envelope  😊

There's something else about being creative...... it's like a conversation.  You can paint or draw or knit or decoupage or marble or bake in order to express how you are feeling, but then what you have made can connect with someone else to help them express how they are feeling.  And if you connect to God as you are creating then He gets to connect with people through your creativity.

I don't need to tell you how creative God is.  You just need to look around you.   But maybe I do need to tell you how creative you are.  You are made in the image of the one who paints the sunsets and made the flowers.  And if His spirit lives in you then you have access to every imagining and thought in the super creative mind of God.  What to do about that?  I think all you need to do is invite God to open you to the potential of being creative and then step back and see where He leads you.  You might be surprised where you end up.