Being creative

calvin, hobbes, creative, bored, snowman

Why is man creative? Is it an expression of how to understand the world around us? Or maybe it is a means of communication, reminiscent of drawings on stone tablets to share knowledge.

More importantly, do you consider yourself creative? If so, why do you create?

Now, I bring all these questions up for a simple reason-if we are talking about writing and imagining worlds beyond our own, should we not consider the purpose behind such imaginings?

For instance, if I take a purely survivalist and evolutionary perspective on creativity, you could run into some problems. While I will agree that being able to think creatively to escape a predator or to create new tools is an advantage, the ability to draw may be useful to communicate those ideas. However, one can also see the disadvantage of drawing on a stone tablet inside a cave as the bear comes out.

You could also take a more religious perspective too. I'm not talking purely a Christian one, but just the idea that a god created humanity and they were placed on the Earth for a purpose. What purpose would being creative serve? If you take it to a religious extreme, you would probably end up in a Middle Ages mode, where commissioned artwork is that of religious themes but more secular work is shunned or avoided.

Of course, there are other perspectives, but I wanted to address to the two more extreme ones before coming to what I believe is a biblically sound approach to creativity. In order to do so, I will be citing two passages, both from the Book of Genesis, that will give insight into why man creates, and how that creativity can best be used.

The first verse is taken from Genesis 1 and states that God made man in His own image. "26Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; (NASB)."

Now, there are several spiritual implications in that verse, and whole books have been written about man being made in God's image. Some take it as man being made a spiritual, as well as physical beings, thus differentiating man from animals. Others have pointed out that it makes man a moral creature, capable of making moral choices and decisions.

All of these points are interesting, and deserving of their own discussion. But, the focus I want to make is about man being in God's image implies that man shares some of God's attributes, such as being a spiritual being, being a moral agent and capable of choosing. There is one other attribute of God that I believe man shares; that of being creative. In Genesis 1, verse 1, we read, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (emphasis added)."

In the very first words of the Bible we are given the image of a God who creates, a God who designs the world and all the life on the Earth in a variety of ways. God, by His very nature is creative, and I would submit that man, being created in God's image, is naturally a creative being.

Why do you think you are creative?