Creative Inheritance

Have you ever tried reading the Bible from the very beginning straight through? I only have tried only a couple of times when feeling extra zealous. It never worked out for me. I think in my best attempt I made it about half way through the Old Testament. We don’t have to get that far to start to understand who God is. In fact, in Genesis 1:1 we learn something very powerful. “In the beginning He created the Heavens and the Earth.” God is Creator. A few chapters later we read that God created us in His image.  What image is that? Creator. 

We are inherently creative, and refusing to partake in the creativity in us is refusing to participate in our truest nature. Dan McCollam says it this way, “Creativity is not a mode. Creativity is not a gift. Creativity is the very nature of God inside you.” 

Easy to say, harder in practice. 

When I was young I loved painting, coloring, drawing with those little sketch books…all of it. My favorite class was art class. Even when I was sent outdoors I could be find making up games or covered in chalk dust. I never second guessed if what I was doing was pretty enough, creative enough, unique enough or inspired enough. 

Along my journey from childhood to depressed teenager I began distancing myself from the things I used  to love. 

I remember being a young adult and my mom telling me that I was creative. I shrugged her complement off with an, “I wish, you are my mom and have to say that.” But it was a conversation that struck something deep with my heart, and those words rang in my Spirit for many years. I tried to reconcile this deep longing for creativity and my surrounding circumstances by saying things like, “Well, event planning is creative, I can do that,” or “I like schedules, fitting everything into a schedule can take creative energy.” 

I was right. There is creativity in every corner of the world. 

I was also desperately wrong. The creativity that I was settling for was way below my inheritance as a daughter of the Creator. Honestly, the creativity I am currently settling for is way below my inheritance. 

One day I was explaining to one of my friends there paradox of my life. That I was constantly surrounded by creatives. All of my closest friends are artists, musicians, writers, photographers or dancers. Not a surprise since I moved to a city that known for it’s creativity. However, I didn’t view myself as any of these things. She looked at me and casually but with sharp precision says, “Nicole, that’s because you are a creative too. Creatives are drawn to creatives. You can step into your creativity anytime you want.” 

I did nothing with her words, but like my moms, they haunted me. In 2016 I had an experience that pushed me into a creative free fall. I was on a personal retreat to get some rest, and while I was at dinner a man came up to me and asked what I did for a living. Without thinking I said, “I am a writer.” I was not a writer! I worked at a church.  With a panic face I stumbled over my words, “No I am not, I am an Interim Children’s Director. I work at a church. I don’t know why I said that.” I could not avoid it any longer. God was trying to get my attention. In the Bible He opened a donkey’s mouth to talk, that day He opened mine. 

A few days later a friend passing me in the hallway at church asked if I would be interesting in joining a writers group. I knew the answer had to be yes. That group was the best thing that has ever happened to my creativity. Maya Angelou wrote, “The more creativity you use, the more you have.” I have found these words remarkably true. 

It took a couple of years, but lately God has opened up the world of painting to me.  Step by step He is sweetly drawing me out of my comfort zone. What started as a way to express my feelings in therapy, quickly became a way to worship, and even journal.  One time I was journaling with Father God and I felt like He told me to go paint. I believe the question I had asked him was to reveal His nature to me in a new way. I saw a picture of a gold snowflake, so I painted one. Then I saw another, and another. I just kept painting. When I finished I stepped back and felt like God said He was beautifully complex, with lots of overlapping and connecting layers. The truth as stuck with me, it wasn’t just words on a page, but a creative experience that I had with God.

We are God’s pieces of art, and we get to say yes to that. As we agree, there is a natural flood gate that will open and God’s creativity will start to flood our lives.