God invites us into His narrative as soon as we are able to be active participants. He has set the stage of creation and dedicated it in every part as a gorgeous garden. A living temple filled with colour, extravagant and diverse creatures, not made with human hands. He shaped it from being formless and void into a living, breathing and animated world. Then, he places us as human beings, as His god-idols, His representation as High Priests over it. We are elevated over it, though we were made of dust. We are alike to all other creatures, yet, we are the only ones He breathes into and imparts an image bearing ability within. It is only in humanity that God says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27. The garden is the context and we are to work in it, as a pure delight, a vocational call to be embodied in our spirituality. The call to name the animals is a huge vote of confidence. We could name any creature we came across and have been doing so ever since. We are still engaged in this first calling, we have not completed it all these years later. To name something, means that you have the ability to have authority over it. God has given us everything for our good, whatever we name we should love. We live an abundant life and we worship God through a joyful delight in our meaningful labour. A call to create is an embodied vocational call to be like God in our imagebearing.

I love the story of the dedication of all things. It’s as if God wants to bless every stage, every layer and every creature with goodness, peace and freedom. For Creatives it is the Genesis point of all things, it is written in a way that we can relate to. If we have ever engaged in project management, we are working in teams and rely on one another for the completion of the task at hand. It will take all of us to achieve it, no-one is exempt and we are all gifted in unique ways. So,God has created a world that is interconnected and integrated into a whole. It is all linked together, heaven and earth are united into one. There is nothing to separate one person from another. Nothing to divide us on racial, ethnic, economic or political grounds. All is unified and yet there is expansive diversity too, God respects both the unity and the diversity of it all. The fact that He includes human beings as key players in the future of His project is mind boggling. He does it fully, wholeheartedly and without reservation. He is creating a kingdom over which we get to serve as high priests, joining with creation in worship. We are not to simply maintain, but to inventively and creatively transform His creation. We invent musical instruments, furniture, populate the earth all to spread and bless creation, with our unique fingerprints on all that He has made. He wants us to join with Him. To co-labour and manage our small part of His big creation as equal and full creative assistants to His work. God knows that it is risky to take on junior designers, but He wants us to feel His approval, His generosity and His invitation into the creative process from the very start.

The story of God begins with Him creating All things. Everything not God that came into being from God is included in these two words. All things. We reduce the gospel down to Jesus on the cross, but the gospel has always been about everything, it is cosmological. God made all things, holds all things together up until this very moment and will redeem and reconcile all things to Himself in the end. If we believe that God made all things in the beginning, then we must have a basis for accounting for all things being included at the end of the narrative too. Anything left out, leaves God just the saviour of souls, or our spirit and not much more. God is not creating all things in the beginning and then ending with a few disembodied souls floating about in the end. He is in it to redeem it – all of it. We will see that God’s plan is to redeem creation too. To redeem the garden He created and include what we have created also, all that is good and wholesome in our cultural inventiveness. The Bible speaks of a glorious city with garden elements. Every tribe and tongue and culture included in the revelation of the New Heavens and New Earth in the end. We were made human, are human now and will be human there! God will redeem all things, nothing is left out of His redemptive plan. The invitation is open for all, though some will refuse His invitation by their free will. We make ourselves exempt.

As creatives, we get to place our footage on a timeline to edit a film. We decide the layers of paint that we will commit to a canvas. We move around our subject to capture a portrait and wait for the definitive moment that puts them in the best light or captures their expression perfectly. We get to play in the orchestra, knowing that our notes join with the rest of the musicians, according to the right timing of the notes. We Know when we are in tune and that we must hit our cues just like an actor does according to his mark. We follow the blueprint as architects, knowing that our work must be in line with the masterplan set out for us. Our Creative work must include an idea, the genesis of which is usually terrifying and pushes the boundaries of what we have done before. Perhaps pushing the outer limits of our creativity, skillset or current abilities. We must keep learning, pushing the envelope and expressing ourselves in new and wonderful ways. It is a challenge to achieve greater heights of creative work. We are rarely satisfied. Yet, God took time to rest, to look back on His Creation and assess it. To be inspired for more and His creativity was not a once and for all thing, He is still creating moment by moment. Indeed He would be tested again and again – He must also problem solve and trouble shoot His grand plan, because it will go pear-shaped quite quickly. and quite often too. As creatives, we can relate to all of this, I am sure.

We cannot not communicate! God chose to make us embodied spiritual creatures, made to reflect Him in all of His ways. He is infinite, but somehow in our finite lives we reflect who He is in our daily living. This is incredible. That an all powerful God who is sovereign over all things, would make us responsible for a few finite things with the same opportunity to do as He does. I am embodied and live my whole life within my body. I cannot be anywhere where my body is not, I am constrained by it, but also compelled by it. Within the limitations, I am free to choose what I will do with all that I am. I can have an impact in my own life and the lives of others too. I make a difference, it can be constructive or destructive, but I do make a real dent for good or bad in other’s lives. I am also communicating constantly both through what I do and what I don’t do. Most of communication is non-verbal. Our bodies give us away constantly, our faces and body language tell people what is going on emotionally, mentally or physically. This is how God made us to navigate the world. My body is how I move around, how I am truly known and how I have accountability for my actions. I am a living creature among many other image bearers. Every, and all life is given by God, sustained by Him and is created for Him, by Him, through Him. Colossians 1:16