This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.”
CREATED TO CREATE
With this uniquely given gift, the image of God (Imago Dei) in us…we have been given an amazing task. We must create. As our creator has created and still creates everyday…we are to join Him in this activity. As a father teaching his child how to learn and eventually do something more with his life, we too come alongside our father and learn from him how to create beauty in this world.
God uses us to create a beautiful world full of love, full of grace, and full of majesty. He paints the sky for us everyday. He lights the night with beautiful stars. He tells a story in the changing of the seasons, from the beauty of life in the summer, to the fading autumn leaves, even into the death of winter…the hibernation of life…the temporary sleep of cold and dreary… and then the resurrection of life in the spring.
God is telling a story with his creation. It is not simply for the beauty of the creation that He gives us forests and oceans, canyons and sweeping sunsets. He is telling a story. There is something that must be created that hasn’t been created yet.
There is some new life that must spring out of this death.
There is the story of the ages shining forth into the future. A hope that one day we will all find an end to death and a glorious celebration of white beaches that never fade, sweeping sunsets that never end, brilliant oceans that never stop shining, and magestic worship of the only King who loves us eternally.
Access
You were created to create the un-created.
But your creations will never come alive until you allow the Creator of all things to come and infuse your creations with life. There is a beauty to humanity’s creations that speaks of a lostness, a fading, a distraction.
We tell a story with our creations as well. Our story is one of brokeness, of darkness, of failure, and of inability to accomplish sustaining life. No matter how hard we try to create something that lasts… everything we build will find itself failing in the end.
Our story is one of death, not life. Resurrection doesn’t exist in humanity’s narrative until it meets the Narrator.
Ultimately… the beauty we create will fade. The attractiveness we have will disappear.
BUT…
There is a season of new hope.
There is a season of new life.
There is a season of resurrection.
And it comes about through the passionate, gracious, loving, hard-fought, and self-sacrifice of the One who made us coming here to take our place.
The story doesn’t end with humanity’s creation. The story ends with a joint creation of God and us. God provides the life. He provides the materials to create. He even provides the creators, made in the image of their Creator, given the divine spark of creativity and life that never ends.
Access comes by the blood of the one who gave His life for us.
Invitation comes as a free gift of life to all who would accept it.
Challenge is given as hope is fanned into flame.
And Creation will eventually stop groaning with the pains of sin and death and hell and abuse when our Creator comes to redeem all that we have broken.
Our salvation is not some religious existence in the hallowed halls of a church building.
Our spirituality is not some ethereal existence where we wait on transcendence.
This access is real and concrete. This creation is tangible and malleable. And this story is the truest narrative you can ever imagine.