When the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, He said, “Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:2-3) He then proceeded to create – to make land, seas, the sky, the sun, the moon, stars, fish, birds, animals, and plants. Then He made man in His own image (Genesis 1:27). When God created, He blessed them, and said, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:22, 28).
I’ve said many times that God left his fingerprints – a bit of Himself and His character – on the things He created. But unlike the rest of the earth, we have been made in the very image of God – like Him. Due to Adam and Eve’s sin, our actions and willfulness of heart don’t exactly look like Him at this point. But that doesn’t completely negate the fact that when God made us, He made us in His image.
Part of being made in His image is that we have some of the basic desires that He has. We want to love, because He is love (even if our love doesn’t parallel His love very well). We have a desire for beauty, because what He makes is beautiful (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We dream of perfection because He is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
We also have a desire to create things. So does God, apparently – He created the earth. And now, He creates new hearts within us. He’s always moving and working (John 5:17), creating and restoring, drawing us into relationship with Himself.
So when you have a desire to create a beautiful picture – or garden – or needlework – or woodwork – or food item – or movie – remember that the instinct comes from the heart of God. We can use it for righteousness or we can abuse it. But at its heart, we are after the heart of our Father in those moments of desiring to create beauty out of chaos, loveliness out of disorder, and make it new and attractive just like God does to us.
