In the Beginning

In the Beginning

The first five words in the Bible are…

IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED.

When you examine all the various forms of life on this planet you will never find any other species that has the ability to improve their own life. Some people write silly articles trying to claim that animals are smarter than people. If they are so much smarter, let THEM write the stinkin’ article! Who’s researching who? I’ve yet to see apes examining a lab full of scientists.

Animals continue to exist with the same basic quality of life that they have always had. You don’t see them developing technology. They aren’t building better homes. They aren’t finding better ways to acquire food. And they certainly aren’t creating.

Sure, there are some people who have been taught animals to paint. And there are some elephants that can paint almost as well as a five-year old.

I hate to steal the thunder of an artistic elephant, but the beast did not teach itself to create. In fact, I doubt it even knows it is doing something artistic. At the very least I have never heard of any animal fashioning paintbrushes from wood and hair, stretching canvas and mixing pigments to depict a lovely summer sunset.

Only humans can do these things.

The very first attribute that we learn about God was not his love, his forgiveness or his justice. It was his creativity. Twenty-seven verses later we read:

Genesis 1:27 [NET] God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

We were created in the image of a creative being. We were made to being like him. We alone have the ability to create as he created.

The earliest humans should have simply concerned themselves with scavenging for food and creating shelter. That would have been the most practical thing to do. Yet we find cave walls gloriously adorned with artwork.

Altamira Bison

Whether you realize it or not you have been given a gift that no other creature on earth possesses. The ability to create. For some reason society tends to beat that notion out of us. 95% of all 2nd graders know that they are creative but once they reach high school that number drops to only 5% who think they are truly artistic.

How to be like God

I think that when we create we are exercising a gift that only God and man possess. There are few things that give us the ability to be God-like, but art is one of them.

A novelist can with a word fashion a universe, create life, destroy life, and tell a tale that span eons of time.

A sculpture can take a piece of dirty stone and carve it into a beautiful image that will last for centuries.

A painter can take brush to canvas and capture a nuance of human emotion that anyone can relate to but few would have taken the time to notice.

A poet can weave words into meter and rhyme to convey ideas that can be expressed no other way.

A musician can play notes and sings lyrics that will reach into your soul and pull out an emotion you forgot you had.

A filmmaker can tell a story through images that can forever change the course of your life.

And the list goes on.

Stop Being Practical

Somewhere along the line we were told verbally or non-verbally that art is not practical. Creativity becomes inferior to working hard, making money and being practical.

No…art is not practical. So stop being practical!

You have the ability to create. Use it. Create something. Celebrate the divine gift that was given to you. Do not let perfection stand in your way. Do not even let being “good” stand in your way. Create poorly if you must.

Just create.