The Wonder and Joy of Creation

...Creation is not a mere copy of God's nature, nor is it so far below him as to be unworthy of his love and delight. It is the garment he wears, the theater of his glory, his grand design, the masterpiece of the Artist - his song and his dance and his story. As light from the sun, as streams from a fountain...

In creation the Maker "calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Romans 4:17); "by [his] will they existed and were created" (Revelation 4:11). Out of nothing at all, yet at the same time from him, the overflowing fountain, come all things, given being through the life and power of God, the self-existent One. The patterns of his own nature, the ideas eternally present in his infinite mind, are kindled with a creative fire and given a new and different expression in things other than God!

In Him there is no scarcity of ideas or designs for things that could be. Because God is not only the fountain but also the infinite well, he pours forth creation without limit. Plain bounty, as Lewis says - infinite abundance! When one thing is willed into being through the awesome power of the Maker, there is no depletion in the potential for things that yet may be. And for this - for his unending power and creativity - God is to be praised.

We are the streams from the fountain, the branches dependent on the tree. Yet we are even more dependent than this - without God we have no being at all, but without us He is the same, distinct from creation and without any need for it. He is Love, He is the Giver, and he creates so that his love and giving may overflow. We are blessed to receive this great treasure, given because God is a Giver, not because he needs to give. We are loved because God is a Lover, not because he needs to love us.

God is all-sufficient in himself, yet it is a joy for him to create - to see his own patterns and divine characteristics expressed and reflected in new ways, to see his ideas made to be as things distinct from him. And it is a joy for him to enter into his creation, even to live within it, as a creature - this too is his nature, and we see it in Christ.

Creativity, imagination, the making of new things, the bringing into being of worlds out of nothing...blessed be He!