Wednesday 9th Dec

I was watching The Great Pottery Throwdown final this evening.  And pondering on the fact that there are so many of these talent shows popping up all over the place these days.  It started with singing, then baking and then we have had sewing and painting and now potting...... it makes for good telly .  Watching people with talent competing and perfecting their skills whilst being judged by experts who also share some of their knowledge with the audience as we go along.  I love those shows.

Potting must be one of the most primitive of crafts - probably the most ancient form of being creative known to man.  Which is not surprising - given that we are all made in the image of a Master sculptor.   God took a lump of clay from the ground and formed a man.  Now it doesnt particularly matter to me whether you believe that He literally did that, or whether you believe that the story of the creation of man is a condensation of an evolutionary process - the bottom line is that human beings are awesome creations.   We still dont understand so much of how the human body works.  The phenomenal intricacy of how it all holds together and each part works in harmony.  The miracle of conception and birth.  The extraordinary mystery of personality and imagination and thinking processes.  We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.   And God made us.  Along with everything else.  Talk about design, artistry, creativity, imagination, skill.  

We are made by God in the image of God and God is super creative.  So we, His handiwork, are super creative too.   I have never met a person who is not creative.  I've met a few who dont think they are.  But they just havent taken a minute to recognise what they are good at or love to do.   If you like fixing computers or writing code , if you love baking or gardening or painting your fingernails exotic colours, if you like making up little tunes in your head or stories to tell your kids at bedtime ------ well then you are creative.  It is in all of us - and we can especially see it in small children.  They are endlessly making up stories, arranging things in patterns, doodling and scribbling, singing and humming, tapping and clapping, dancing and moving.   Kids are unfettered in their creativity.  Their imaginations are awesome.  Once upon a time we were those kids

Christmas is a good time for being creative.  We decorate our trees and our homes, we bake and cook and stick fancy bows on prettily wrapped presents.  We spend Christmas day building Lego with the kids or going out on long walks with the dog to appreciate the glory of creation, or perhaps just tidying up to get the house back to habitable again!   I love the fact that Christmas gives us all an excuse to be creative.  Lets grab the chance to express ourselves this year and enjoy making everything a little bit better.

And finally, all of our creativity is a mere shadow of what is to come when God's second Adam - the one who was begotten, not created - comes into His own.    Take a look at all the wonders and amazing beauty and stunning intricacies of this created world and then try to imagine what God could do in the uncreated realm.  Where He is not restricted by having to use ' stuff' .  The universe is awesome but heaven is going to make all of it look like a pencil sketch on the back of an envelope.