Because I work as a photographer and writer, people often compare their lives to mine and say something along the lines of “You’re so lucky. I’m just not that creative.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
As men and women made in God’s image, all of us are inherently creative.
This is a good thing because the ability to imagine and create is essential in every phase and every aspect of life. It will help us to figure out how to remodel the bathroom on a budget and what to feed our families night after night. Imagination and creativity are equally important in the relational realm. Resolving conflicts between co-workers (or your own children), establishing boundaries with in-laws, or breaking through to something new with your spouse all depend upon our ability to look beyond the problem and come up with a solution. Once we see creativity through this larger frame, we can then rely on it to help us navigate any type of relational challenge.
A Gift for Everyone
God has chosen to endow all of us with the ability to create because He’s a good God and because He knew we would need this faculty. As such, engaging our imaginations and living creatively should not be seen as child’s play or as a privilege for select vocations such as a sculptor or musician. To think along these lines is to deny our heritage. Poet Luci Shaw asserts, “We who believe we bear God’s image must realize that the image includes the capacity to imagine and create, because God is himself an imaginative Creator.” In fact, God is the ultimate creator. He came up with the idea for snow, giant sequoias, watermelons, rainbows, hummingbirds, dolphins, and the particulars of procreation.
You may not write books or take photographs, but you have the capacity to bring order, solve problems, and make beautiful things—which is what being creative is all about.
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