Creator God, you spun stars and painted skies beyond the reach of our telescopes, galaxies upon galaxies that stretch far past our vision. Why so vast, so endless, so hidden? For centuries, we looked up, small and unaware, barely scratching at the edges of understanding. Only now, with technology, we are cracking the door open, seeing hints of all that you made. And yet our minds, bound by time, can barely comprehend infinity. We are humbled, nearly silent. Here on earth, we hold rulers and lenses, trying to measure the mysteries of eternity.
This small blue dot seems like the beating heart of it all. What about everything else? Why? How come you have left us in wonder about all these far off inventions of yours? Did you not want us to understand them? Are they things for the future?
My wife answered this question in the most simplistic way. It was kind of embarrassing how fast she responded when I presented her with these perplexing questions. She said, “Because he’s an artist. Artist create for their own enjoyment.”
God is unmatched. No rival, no competition. He stands alone in the vast, infinite creativity of all existence. A star-breather, an atom-weaver. As a divine artist, He continues to exercise His intellectual designing on a measureless canvas. He loves creating so much that He thought up image bearers of himself who could create as well, continuing his legacy throughout earthly generations. But there is a massive difference between Creator God and the created image bearers. Because of the curse of sin, image bearers will have to deal with comparison. Unlike God, who has no equal in creating, we as humans will have to deal with evaluating our creativity to others. This steals the joy of an artist. God doesn’t have this problem. His joy is constant. His creativity is never approached by a jealous thought. How He must ache for us to taste the joy He knows—the pure, untainted pleasure of creating without shadows.
Just for fun, I am going to place myself on an island. I was born there. Grew up there. Ate there. No one is there but me all the days of my life. Let’s say I wrote songs and sang melodies every day. What a great life that would be. I get up with every sunrise and write lyrics based on what I am observing and feeling. The problem is, who influenced me? Who taught me how to play the guitar or whose style did I mimic? I would have had to hear it already. Maybe the melody of the birds gave me notes. Maybe the underwater mammals taught me about sounds. I would have needed to learn it. The point is, the artist we have become is because of the influence of other artist, beginning with God. We are all thieves of His beauty, breathing in His colors, His patterns, His life. Even the enemy must work with what God has made, bound to creation’s limits because he cannot create from nothing.
Ok. Where am I going with this?
What if we could somehow love another’s work without feeling small in its shadow? What if I could listen to songs, look at art, see others’ joy on canvas or page and be only captivated, never envious? What if you could sit down and listen endlessly to the vast catalog of Spotify’s music and be captivated by another’s creativity without a hint of jealousy? What if you could watch a YouTube video as an artist without wishing you could be that person? What if you could look at a painting and emerge yourself in its story, yet avoid even a second of envy? This is how God eternally lives. He always takes delight in His creation. There is no other competition where he has to compare his work too. All the work around Him was created from Him. All things find their origin in his creativity.
Is it possible for an image bearer to live within the curse and be fully satisfied with their creativity, having no jealous bone in their body? I believe that moment will come when the curse is lifted and we take on the perfect non-cursed image God intended from the beginning. I know that this freedom will take work, a chiseling from the Spirit, a surrender of all the ways I try to make myself bigger by diminishing others. You see, the intention of God’s creativity is to bring himself delight. He’s an artist, as my wife said. He creates for his own enjoyment. I believe when we create for His enjoyment; ours blossoms as well. Our delight forms once we see His. It is when we sidestep His delight with our created things we fall into the trap of comparison and jealousy.
A sinless artist doesn’t need to tell everyone about His distant galaxies. A Holy Creator is not looking to be affirmed with language by something He created. After all, language was His creation. He creates because He is an artist. He does what He loves.
I am an artist. I am often speechless and wrapped in gratitude when I get to create songs. Sometimes I catch myself lost in wonder about how I just pulled melodies and lyrics together to form a song. Why me? Who am I to have this gift? But I am an artist who struggles with a constant loss of delight. Because of this curse, I am easily swayed into comparing myself with other image bearers who created beautiful things. Jealousy is constantly knocking on my front door, wanting to come in and make a bed for itself.
The western world uses 12 notes. All the music you hear on the radio comes from something someone else already created. We are all stealing each other’s ideas, which originally come from God. Now, God is not limited to 12 notes, but we have limitations. Sounds come from waves. And the frequency of the waves determines which pitch we hear. Our hearing is limited. In this case, we are just a bunch of artists stealing from one another’s ideas because of our limited abilities. Each generation tells itself it’s new, but we’re all inheritors, borrowing from You, trying to make it ours. All we are doing is plagiarizing and not giving credit where it is due. Where am I going with all this?
I am trying to come to grips with what I can become. I won’t be able to be perfect, but I can be in pursuit of what perfection gives.
So, I begin with gratitude, acknowledging that my creativity was never mine alone. I thank God the Creator, and every artist who has left fingerprints on my heart. I let my art rise to my Lord, crafting it not for approval but as a gift, something I hope brings Him joy as it brings me joy. And I remember to look around and celebrate the artists beside me, those whose hands and hearts have shaped my own.
God, the artist, enjoys creating for His own pleasure. He doesn’t need created things to affirm what He already knows is beautiful. We need His stamp of approval, because we are simply living out His design, reflections of His infinite beauty. Why? Because what we create was the intention of his design over us. He wants beautiful things from the beautiful image bearers He breathed life into.
We must create. We must give credit.
Maybe in this, we can live freely, outside of envy, outside of fear. Maybe we learn to enjoy each brushstroke, each note, each image without measuring our own against it. One day, Lord, we’ll know that freedom fully. But until then, let us create with open hearts, longing for the day when we can, without rivalry or jealousy, take joy in every single piece of art. Come soon, Lord Jesus. Make us free.
God's artistry speaks so loud, He becomes visible. Romans 1:20 (NLT)
20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Love this one sometimes your writings give us the gift of just meditating on what you wrote each time we read your thoughts of our creator. I think we all know our human mind will never be able to comprehend the beauty behind every thing seen and unseen but it’s fun trying.