God as Artist

Often I hear people talk about God as Creator.

I agree. God is Creator. But when I hear people mention this, they immediately say God is all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign. He spoke and the world came into existence.

Again, I don’t disagree. I just think this is an incomplete picture, because if God is Creator, God is Artist. I mean, on the human level, when I say a person created something, I don’t talk about their authority or power. I talk about their creativity. I talk about their skill, their craftsmanship. So when someone says God created the earth, I want to hear about His creativity, His skill, His craftsmanship. I want to hear how awesome God is as an artist.

For example, if you go into a forest sometime and begin to study the trees, you’ll notice that no two trees are exactly the same. Even if they are the same type of tree (elm, maple, sycamore, etc.), no two trees will be exactly the same. They will vary in height, in girth, in branch location, in leaf quantity, etc. Think about that in the forest you’re in and your brain might get overwhelmed. Then think about that for every forest throughout the state. Then consider that for the nation, then for the world. People at NASA have done some calculations to estimate there are perhaps 400 billion trees in the world. Let your mind wrap around that for a minute. 400 billion, all different.

Then consider the facts about snowflakes. Based on microscopic examinations, scientists have confirmed that, as far as they have observed, no two snowflakes are the same. Those of you living in the Midwest, did you think about that just a few days ago? I know I didn’t when I was shoveling that snow. No two snowflakes are the same. Amazing. Consider that for the people living in Canada and Alaska, or down there at the South Pole. You’d think one of the flakes would have to be a repeat. But God just keeps coming up with zillions of designs.

Another thing I was thinking about when I was considering the Great Artist was the shape of His creations. I was thinking about this in contrast with the shapes of our creations. I mean, when you drive into the downtown of a large city, you see tall rectangle after tall rectangle after tall rectangle. The art museum and maybe a couple places will be different shapes, but for the most part we love our rectangles in the city. And it’s the same in the country. You have rectangular pole barn after rectangular pole barn after…I think you get the idea. We build squares or rectangles. Now, consider with me, how many things are square or rectangular in the great outdoors?  How many things have an easily identifiable geometric shape (square, triangle, trapezoid, etc.)? Isn’t that wild? I can’t think of a single thing.

And last, but certainly not least, consider human beings. There are 7 billion of us in the world now. 7 BILLION. And although we all have the same basic parts (eyes, nose, lips, ears, etc.), not a single one of us is a repeat. None of us look exactly the same. The closest thing we have to exact replicas are identical twins, but even so, they have minute differences. And ask any set of identical twins and they will be sure to set you straight–they are not the same as their twin.

I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of God’s creativity, and that, only on earth. What about His creativity with the other planets? Stars? Galaxies?

My friends, God is an Artist. The Artist.