I was talking with a friend today about creativity and he asked this question: In light of the fact that we are created beings, isn’t everything we “create” really just reorganizing that which God has already created? The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says that there is nothing new under the sun. Is anything really creative or are we all really just imitating that which has already been done? What do you think?
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If we are comparing ourselves to God then no, there is no such thing as creativity. I don’t think we have any concept (or the ability in our finite minds to have any concept) of the creativity of God. I also thinkk our creativity is bound up in the laws of this world. We can’t spontaneously create something that requires weightlessness for example. I do not think that everything creative has already been done and we are doomed (that’s what it would be like) to repeat or imitate what has already been created. Because God created each of us as individual beings what I create will have a different fingerprint/footprint/handprint etc. than anything anyone else creates, because it comes from the essence of who I am. It may even look or sound like something that someone else has done, but it has a different meaning to me. Years ago I came up with the phrase “friends are the family you choose” I have seen it in print since them. Am I the first person in the history of the world that thought that? No, obviously not. But I created it and it has a particular meaning to me from that time in my life.
We can’t create “something” out of “nothing” as our Creator did, but we were created in His image so we have creative abilities. We can view all that God has designed as our palette. Use all the resources He gave us to create things that bring glory to Him! Unique, inspiring, uplifting, useful creations!
These are good points. While there is one sense in which we are “re-creators” since we are re-arranging the elements that God already created, there is certainly newness in what we are able to do.
I think of the many medical advances that have occurred in the last 100 years. For instance, American soldiers who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have access to medical care that was unthinkable during WW I. Because of the creativity of medical researchers many more soldiers are returning home to their families than would have otherwise.
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. In one respect I don’t believe there is truly new(with one BIG exception). Most things that we call creative are merely us imitating in the visible realm what has been in a higher form in the unseen world. This is not to minimize creativity. This is to simply acknowledge that there is no creativity apart from God. The exception: Relationship. Anything that takes place between you and another person is unique in that moment of time for you. Maybe others have had that same conversation in the past but the relationship is new.
God makes all things new