"Somehow," notes Os Guinness, "we human beings are never happier than when we are expressing the deepest gifts that are truly us." Now, some children are gifted toward science, and others are born athletes. But whatever their speciality, all children are inherently creative. Give them a barrel of Legos and a free afternoon and my boys will produce an endless variety of spaceships and fortresses and who know what. It comes naturally to children. It's in their nature, their design as little image bearers. Set a group of kindergartners down with sheets of paper and tubs of finger paint, and you don't have to provide directions. They know what to do. In fact, paint and paper aren't even necessary, chocolate pudding and a nearby wall will do nicely. A pack of boys let loose in a wood soon becomes a major Civil War reenactment. A chorus of girls, upon discovering a trunk of skirts and dresses will burst into the Nutcracker Suite. The right opportunity reveals the creative nature.
This is precisely what happens when God shares with mankind his own artistic capacity and then sets us down in a paradise of unlimited potential. It is an act of creative inviation, like providing Monet with a studio for the summer, stocked full of brushes and oils and empty canvasses. Or like gving Mozart full use of an orchestra and a concert hall for an autumn of composing. Or like setting Martha Stewart loose in a gourmet kitchen on a snowy winter weekend, just before the holidays. You needn't provide instructions or motivation, all you have to do is release them to be who they are, and remarkable things will result. As the poet Hopkins wrote, "What I do is me, for that I came."
Oh, how we long for this--for a great endeavor that draws upon our every faculty, a great "life's work" that we could throw ourselves into. "I was made for this," said one friend who after years of hesitation finally pursued his dream of becoming a high school teacher. "It energizes me." "After years in a wasteland," moaned aonther, "all I want is to be released to be who I am." His career had not panned out, and as he saw his most productive days slipping by, he longed to find his place. "God has created us and our gifts for a place of his choosing," says Guiness, "and we we only be ourselves when we are finally there." Our creative nature is essential to who we are as human beings--as image bearers--and it brings us great joy to live it out with freedom and skill. Even if it's a simple act such as working on your photo albums or puttering in the garden--these, too, are how we have a taste of what was meant to rule over a small part of God's great kingdom. Willard points out:
Here is a truth that reaches into the deepest part of what it means to be a
person...that we are made to "have dominion" within an appropriate domain of reality. This is the core of the likeness or miage of God in us and is the basis of the destiny for which we were formed. We are, all of us, never-ceasing spiritual beings with a unique eternal calling to count for good in God's great universe...In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited sphere. Only so can they be persons. (The Divine Conspiracy).
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire