Daily Devotional For Saturday, January 18, 2025
Creativity is a gift from the Lord because He is the most creative force in the universe. God could have created only one type of animal in each species, but we would not have all the diversity in the animal kingdom nor with people. Consider all the differences we could not appreciate nor enjoy. It is amazing to me that when God started creating He had all of this in mind from the beginning. In fact, He had you in mind from the beginning. Doesn’t that astound you and create gratitude within you?
Look at Exodus 35:35, “He has filled them with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer and of an embroiderer, in blue and in purple and in scarlet material, and in fine linen, and of a weaver, as performers of every work and makers of designs” (NASB). Scripture gives many examples of God’s limitless creativity: the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything on it, the uniqueness of every human being. He gave ordinary people instructions to build a massive boat that would stay afloat in a worldwide flood, the exquisite Ark of the Covenant, and a magnificent Temple that awed the world.
He made humans creative, too. For more than a thousand years, the Church was the primary incubator of the arts in western culture. Since the Church stepped away from promoting the arts as a means of Christian expression, we have watched their deterioration into a sad and godless place. Let’s try to turn that around. In our homes and in our churches, let’s provide people with opportunities to express their God-given creativity in a faith-filled environment. Let’s reclaim the creative arts for God!
Newsweek magazine had an article on this:
"For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining." That's the first line in a 2010 cover story for Newsweek. The data on creativity comes from decades of research based on a "creativity quotient" test designed by Professor E. Paul Torrance. For the past fifty years, Torrance and his colleagues have been administering the 90-minute test to millions of people worldwide. For nearly thirty years the research showed a predictable trend: creativity quotients kept increasing. In each generation children were becoming more creative than their parents.
But, suddenly, in 1990 that trend ended as creativity scores in the United States started inching downward. After analyzing over 300,000 creativity tests given to children and adults, researchers found that this downward trend has continued for the past twenty years.
In a 2017 follow-up study, data indicate that “children have become less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.”
Experts mention numerous possible causes for the loss of creativity—video games, too much television, the educational system. But the Newsweek article argues that results are not debatable: "The potential consequences are sweeping … . A IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 'leadership competency' of the future … . All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions."
Commenting on the Newsweek article, Christian blogger Jonathon Merritt wrote,
“Followers of Jesus feel an additional pinch. One of the attributes of God is creativity, and as image-bearers we have an obligation to cultivate creativity in culture. This is part of our 'saltiness' as Christians. We should have masterful artists, revolutionary thinkers, and brilliant scientists among our ranks. In this way, a creativity crisis becomes an opportunity for [the church] to fill a cultural void with creative, redemptive energy” (Source: “Why Do We Need Creativity?” Child Creativity Lab (2024); Po Bonson and Ashley Merryman, "The Creativity Crisis," Newsweek, 7-10-10).
The most creative force that will ever touch your life is Almighty God. The most creative aspects of God are still ahead of us. Everyone can be creative if they try. Today, technology that is supposed to help us be creative is also causing us to be less creative. The church should be the one place where creativity oozes and flows. In the past the great cathedrals displayed the creativity of God through artists, craftsmen, stain-glass makers, painters, sculptors and musicians. It is my dream Southside can be that kind of place where people can utilize their creative gifts from God.
Questions To Consider
- Go back to your childhood and think about things you painted or made or built. I remember I made a clay brontosaurus when I was six-years-old that was fired in a kiln that my grandmother kept until her death. I built a treehouse in my backyard. Neither was something to admire except my brontosaurus by my grandmother. How can you this week be creative for Jesus Christ?
- In what ways do you celebrate the creativity of God in the universe, at work, in nature, at school, in, your home and at church?
- If you have children and/or grandchildren, encourage them this week and affirm their creativity. Take the opportunity to share it with others.
Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 104:24, “O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, You are the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and I am thankful to be one of Your creations. May Your creativity grow within Your people and find expression in ways that honor You and Your Kingdom purposes—throughout the earth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly