As I’m sitting here listening to music in a Starbucks in downtown Cuzco, God is giving me so many revelations about creation and creativity, so I’ve decided to write a spontaneous blog about it. I’ve been creating a new playlist of acoustic worship music, and I was just listening to a few new songs. As I was listening to the beautiful piano and harmonies, I became overwhelmed by the beauty and wonder of God. I realized I wasn’t even listening to the words, but the music. Sometimes I get the same feeling when I’m listening to instrumental music without words at all. It reminded me of something my good friend Caleb told me the other day: “Sometimes with Christian art, we focus too much on the ‘Christian’ part, and we forget that it’s art; and art is supposed to be good.”
In the beginning, God CREATED the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Literally the only thing in existence at that point was God. And God created the world out of absolutely nothing. Take the line from the song So Will I: “With no point of reference, you spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light.” God had nothing to base creation off of other than Himself. Everything in existence, from the tiniest cell and atom to the largest star millions of lightyears away, was thought up by the mind of God. He could have chosen to create the universe any way He wanted, but He chose everything so specifically. All the trillions of cells that make up my body, made up of trillions more molecules, with all the trillions of different processes that go on inside each one every second just to make my body run, and it all works. And those infinitely humongous stars that are also made up of the same infinitely miniscule particles. It makes me wonder how people can think that the universe just exploded out of nothing without the help of an intelligent creator. God created everything so intentionally.
God is not a creator because He created, He created because He is a creator. It’s part of His character. He is also a redeemer; so, of course it’s only natural that He would create a people to redeem: us. And He created us in His image. We have certain aspects of his character, namely, His creativity. The other week when we were at Machu Picchu, I almost felt a little guilty for admiring the man-made structures, even though we were surrounded by some amazing God-made scenery. I asked God if it was wrong for me to do so, and He showed me that, even though the city is man-made and not God-made, I am still indirectly admiring His creation. It’s His creation’s creation. He created us to create, and He delights in our creation. Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” All of creation reflects God’s glory. God delights in us because He sees a reflection of His glory in us. After all, we were created in His image.
I can worship God by sitting in nature and looking at the beautiful landscapes that our creative God has made. In the same way, I can worship God while listening to music because music is something that He created, and His creation is a reflection of His glory. I can draw or paint something in worship because God created me to create, and I am giving back to Him in worship by using the creativity He has given me to glorify Him. While there’s nothing wrong at all with having words to worship music, you don’t need words to worship. Otherwise, what’s the point of the music? We might as well just be chanting everything.
I want to challenge you, as you are going about your week, to reflect on the creativity of God. You can see it everywhere. Literally everything in existence, whether man-made or God-made, directly or indirectly reflects the glory of God in some way, shape, or form. Or, you can look for other aspects of God’s character in His creation, because I’m telling you, it’s all there. And I challenge you to worship in different ways. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you have to go to church on Sunday and sing worship music with everyone else in order to worship. Worship in whatever way makes you feel more in awe of God. He wants to be worshipped by you, so He created many different ways for you to do so.
Thanks for reading,
Ethan
