CREATIVITY & NATURE

To follow up my last post on the subject of image and perfection, I wish to explore nature and creativity.

As we noted in the last post, God created the original perfection. While this should not be minimized, the first understanding we should have about creation, is what it says about it's creator, namely that God is creative! This is a very obvious conclusion, but something which we may have not thought about. We have not considered the implications of what it means when we understand that God is an artist. Edith Schaeffer wrote on this subject considerably:

"The only artist who is perfect in all forms of creativity--in technique, in originality, in knowledge of the past and future, in versatility, in having perfect content to express as well as perfect expression of content, in having perfect truth to express as well as perfect expression of truth, in communicating perfectly the wonders of all that exist as well as something about Himself, is of course God--the God who is Personal. God the Artist! ~ Edith Schaeffer, Hidden Art

If God is an artist, and we are created in His image, not only are we His art, we each are artist ourselves. So when we create, after our creator, we honor something of His initial creativity.

Yet, there is something more we need to consider about God's art. God's art is not in it's original form. It is as if God painted the most perfect painting of the broadness of nature and it's landscapes and man to live within it and then another came along and violently cut it across it's canvas, tearing it's beauty and man with it! If we let this sink in, we can feel the loss. We can truly lament the destructiveness unjustly wrought upon God's art! Much like the tears Jesus shed over Lazerus, we weep ourselves, if we truly take the Fall of mankind and creation seriously.

As a result we should consider that nature is no longer properly reflecting the testimony of order that God intended in His perfect art. Consider these words from Schaeffer:

"...nature provides no sufficient base for either morals or law, because nature is both cruel and noncruel." ~ Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?

Schaeffer is not merely being philosophical here. He is replying to the attempts of man to use nature for these things and likewise echoing a tenant of scripture:
Nature is in bondage to corruption and subject to futility:

 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:19-22 ESV)

Thus nature, like us, awaits the coming of Christ, who will not only completely restore the image of His people, but also nature itself.  

Yet, we should not forget, however, that God's creation still speaks, bearing not just the testimony of Adam's violence, but it speaks still strongly enough, though the noetic affects of the fall, with the strength to declare God’s invisible attributes:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20 ESV)

This is significant, and should help us to understand where our true hope rest. Not in man, he is imperfect. Not in nature, it is imperfect. It rest in the message of the creator, who has sought to restore His divine painting! We should understand that one of the most prominent themes of scripture is the  restoratative aspect of God's Covenant. Remember the promise to Abraham after he was prevented from offering Isaac, who was typologically a representation of the offering of Christ?

"and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:18 ESV)

 Thusly, Christ, Abraham's offspring, has blessed the nations.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (some manuscripts read, "peace and goodwill among men)

So now consider this: In Christ, there is this thorough understanding of restoration!

 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV)

Wow! So, now returning to the understanding of creativity. We are no longer creatures of the fall, but the recreated process has begun, from the inside out. We are being restored, the painting restoration has been paid for in blood, the Son of God was cut, that the perfectly painted canvas that was tore in two might be fully restored.  

So what does this mean for us? As Transformationalist, we are in between these two worlds and we must now make strides to represent our true citizenship to the watching world. We are to strive to be personal in a world that follows impersonal nature. We are to be creative, in a world that steadily sees creative and merely utilitarian or abstract. We create after our Creator, who gives meaning to the creation and our creativity shows our inheritance to His creativity, who has both created and re-created His people.

This will be what I will strive to represent personally in my post on this blog in various ways. From time to time, I will display intentional acts of creativity. I do this with the intent of honoring and glorifying Christ, and showing the beauty of creativity as a testimony of His creativity, before a watching world. Join me! Join me in your life, declare the God of creation, through creative acts!



When we are creative, when we restore beauty, we display the miraculous nature of our redeption.

SEEKING THE PERFECT IMAGE

Francis Schaeffer often said that "If you desire perfection or nothing, you will get nothing."

The implications of that thought are very profound. Something which keeps me thinking, as I strive in work and in life.  

Take a look at the graphic on the left. What do you see? At the top left, is a photo of me, which is un-doctored. Now look at the one in the lower right-hand corner. This one has been digitally enhanced. The image attempts to be perfect, except for one obvious thing. It's simply not real. I personally find the image a little disturbing!

Having spent the last several months looking for a new job, I found myself at times torn between these two versions of me. On one hand you want people to see the best likeness of you in the best possible light, when you are being scrutinized. Yet on the other hand you want to be real. You want to be authentic and not fake or plastic. Thus, a tension arises, between notions of perfection and reality. Something is lost when we try to be something we are not. 

All of this got me thinking. What if people were to see the real you? All of your failures, your worst sins, and your most glaring mistakes? Thinking about this, we are forced to introspection. Yet if we were truly honest, if we truly opened up that closet, and brought out all of the skeletons, none of us would display a perfect image. In fact, what people might find would probably be something ugly and offensive. In some way, some how, there would be something that would show glaringly that we miserably fall short of being perfect. How can anyone stand with dignity, when all of the lights are turned on, shining directly into the darkest corners of our life?

As a Christian, the concept of image and perfection is a rather complex matter. It involves understanding four notions at once. Firstly, scripture teaches that we were made perfect, in the image of God, but that we also are the imperfect Sons of Adam, as C.S. Lewis calls us. We are fallen, imperfect creatures, who have lost our perfection, and the image of God is largely obscured in us. Yet further, thankfully, the third truth, is that a Second Adam has come, namely Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has died to give us His perfection.
    

So what has this got to do with personal and professional image? Well the implications are enormous. Creatively, being made in the image of God, we firstly believe that mankind was made with great dignity and that each person is deserving of our respect. How practical is that in all areas of life? Yet secondly, we are also Sons of Adam, which requires that we each acknowledge our sinfulness. Who can forget the words of Christ, when he tells those who accused the adulterous woman, "Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone?" Do we require absolute perfection of others, when we ourselves are imperfect?

While these two notions seem to offset each other, when we consider the original perfection versus our current imperfection, they beg for the third clarification, that we who are in Christ, are new creatures, awaiting our full transformation. The real question becomes... how do we live this way? How do we live between two worlds?

Well, think of it like this. If I am to live for Christ, in any setting, there must be a recognition that the image I present contains both perfection and imperfection, but more than this, my image is transforming! I am physically and spiritually imperfect, and yet everything good that I am, has come from God. Whether from how He created me, and the gifts He has given me, or what He has brought forth in my life through the work of Christ. Let's not forget that these are perfect gifts to an imperfect person. Think of these three verses together:

In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28a ESV)

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48 ESV)  

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 ESV)

In these three verses, we see what appears to be contrasting notions. Schaeffer explains this concept as like standing between two cliffs.

The command is clear as a bell: no second—rate standards. “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” [Matt 5:48] In his stand against the concept of a static perfectionism, the careful theologian will say that we sin daily in thought, word and deed. But woe betide us if we count this our norm. That is totally destructive. There is a difference between the declarative statement that we sin daily and the normative statement that such sinning is acceptable. We can say that we sin daily in thought, word and deed without then resting upon our oars and excusing ourselves. Again, to go over either side of the cliff is equally destructive. ~ Francis Schaeffer, Some Absolute Limits

If we walk off of the perfection cliff, we lapse into Legalism. If we walk off the imperfection cliff, we fall to our death via Antinomianism. The proper place to live is not on either side, or having to choose between these two "isms," but rather another one, namely, Transformationalism! This is the image I am to bear, I am to bear the image of Christ, who both created me and is now transforming me. The creative and transformational work in me, should then be aspiring to live moment-by-moment transforming, to show His victory to a watching world.

    My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1 ESV) 

"God has always intended that Christians should be the evidence, the demonstration, of Christ's victory on the cross." ~ Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality, pg 63 (1971)