Thursday, February 28, 2013

CREATIVITY


“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

This was the thinking in the late 1800’s. How could this common misconception have been so wrong? Because people did not understand creativity or its origin. 

Creativity is to mentally see something that does not exist, to imagine, to dream, to invent, to use ingenuity. The first few chapters of Genesis give us insight into the subject. 

Creativity comes in two forms. The first is to bring something into existence from nothing.  (Genesis 1:1 -  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; Colossians 1: 16 & 17 - For by him all things were created: things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.) 

An artist imagines a sunset. It is unique. He paints a beautiful picture using the image that is in his mind. The canvas and paint are just the means. He has created something, a work of art. Adam was a work of art. (Genesis 1:27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him…; Genesis 2:7 - the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breath of life, and man became a living being.)   

The other form of creating is to make something new from what already exists. It is using imagination to invent something by transforming existing things into something new and different. 

A baker mixes flour, sugar, eggs, shortening, and milk and puts it into an oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. He has made a cake from common ingredients but the cake is not like any of the individual ingredients. He has used imagination to make something new. He has invented something. Eve was a cake. (Genesis 2:22 - Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of man, and he brought her to the man.)  

God made Adam and Eve bakers so they could make more cakes.
(Genesis 1:27 -  … male and female he created them. Genesis 4: 1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain…)

They mixed two ingredients (sperm and an egg) in a bowl (uterus) and then baked it at 98.3 degrees for 9 months. They made something new. The cake can be square (male) or round (female). Depending on the recipe it can be white, black, brown, yellow or red (race). (Genesis 1:28 - God blessed them and said to them, “be fruitful and increase in number …”)

God has an imagination that allowed him the unlimited ability to create. Man is made in the image of God so man has an imagination and has the ability to create. There is no limit on what man can create or invent. So give it a try.