Arts & Aesthetics
Reflections from a Balcony
by Clay Staggs
Today is my last day of vacation at the beach. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the balcony at sunset and watching the waves crash in on the shore and I began to contemplate how beautiful God’s creation is.
Jeff Miller frequently talks about human creativity as being one of those ways in which we’re made in God’s image, which is all very true. But, as I continued to think about God and creativity there on the balcony, it occurred to me that we humans don’t really grasp the immensity and consequences of God’s creativity very much. And I think it’s because we can’t really imagine the nothingness out of which God created all that we see.
For example, most all of us can look at a beach and marvel that God would create something so beautiful. But it goes so much deeper than that. There was no rule book that said that God had to use water in his earth. He simply decided to do so. There was nothing that required God to separate night from day, and to put a light in each. (The full moon over the water has been absolutely stunning this week.) Neither was there anything that said that God had to make the waves move, that there had to be dry land, sand, etc., etc. etc. All of these beautiful things that I’ve been enjoying this week are purely the product of God’s creativity. Isn’t the idea that God could come up with the physical world in which we live mind-boggling?
After considering that, what we refer to as God’s “common grace” - the sun shining and the rain falling on the good and the wicked - doesn’t really seem so common, does it?
Posted by Clay Staggs at May 23, 2008 11:40 AM
Fantastic thoughts Clay.
Along these lines you need to a)convince K that an HD TV is absolutely vital to your existence as a man and b)watch the BBC’s Planet Earth series in HD. These were breathtaking…and I kept being blown away by the creativity of God himself.
You need to come up with a substitute phrase for “common grace.” I will even start to use it from the pulpit.
Common grace is only common, as you stated, in the fact that it’s available (common) to all. The source and power are the antithesis of common. The closest word I can think of is unique, but that’s been denigrated to describing iTunes playlists, etc.
The summit of what we can do creatively as humans is a reflection of God’s creativity, but a dim reflection at that. The ‘ex nihilo’ factor is a mind-boggling proposition. Another reflection of our relationship to God- not only can we not affect our salvation, due to being spiritually dead, but we can’t even do what our spirit cries out for us to do (create), without God first having provided the materials with which to create.
The Planet Earth series are great (even when not on HDTV though it would be nice for the Rev. to show it to all on his!!) The Blue Planet, all about the oceans, is equally stunning. We are enjoying going through that now.
Great observation, post and comments. It crossed my mind that God’s creativity, as incredible (mind-boggling, as Jeff said) as it is, still is very damaged (according to Paul) compared to the original. When we see the original in its perfection and glory, as it has been promised to us in the “new heavens and new earth”, we can certainly re-define “mind-boggling.”
The “ex nihilo” creativity of God does make human “creativity” seem rather silly. Even our most brilliant artists cannot escape being derivative in their thought. Our human version creativity is really more like doing a bit of rearranging of what already exists than it is like God’s creativity.
In fact, I think that it’s even difficult to talk about God’s creativity. Theoretically, it’s possible that God could have made everything totally different. Maybe some of the basic principles we consider foundational to thought and existence could have been made differently. There are so many things that we simply have to accept as fundamental to existence; but what if God had made them differently? Is it possible that if God could have created a world without friction? Or could He have made the human eye so that we could see a larger range of colors? It almost goes without saying, that this sort of pondering could go on endlessly. The interesting thing is that God made one specific universe, with very detailed and specific laws, principles etc. I wonder if this particular design was the best of all possible designs? Or is that even a meaningful question?
Knox,
The Bible says that God considered his creation “very good.” God being all-powerful, he certainly could have done anything he chose. That he chose the way he did must suggest that it had significant worth in God’s sight.
I think your question about the functioning of creation on specific laws and principles is very meaningful, because the orderly creation of God reflects that God is a being of reason and order himself. That idea, though, is VERY much out of vogue in modern American evangelicalism, which is infatuated with the emotional and sensational.
I’ll use this occasion to plug classical Christian education, too. One of the things that attracts me to the concept is that it is intent on teaching logic and rational thought, not because it’s trendy, but because it reflects God’s nature.