How do we grow beautiful fruit with the gifts given to us, and do so with humility? What does it mean to serve the gift, and in expansion, the Giver?  

Madeleine L’Engle writes, “The important thing is to recognize that our gift, no matter what the size, is indeed something given us, for which we can take no credit, but which we may humbly serve, and, in serving, learn more wholeness, be offered wonderous newness”

Within each of us resides an intrinsic authority to create new atmospheres and partner with the Holy Spirit to open doors and eyes to heavenly realities. Since we are imagers of the Creator who formed us, it is inarguable that you and I are creative people.

God gave us all the gift of creativity. Yet how often do we sit still, either completely unaware of our influence or full of uncertainty towards the wild capability we inherited?  There are two truths I’ve discovered are necessary for cultivating this creativity, and in doing so, finding wholeness by stepping into the fullness of God’s design.

Stewarding Creativity in all Spheres of Life

Think about the spaces in your life and all the roles you step into – your home, driving your car, your workspace, parenting, marriage, ministry – how is the Spirit inviting you to be creative with him in those spaces?

To be creative is to partner with the Spirit in unlocking doors to the kingdom in the most unlikely, and what we often deem “unholy” spaces – kitchen tables, cubicles, the produce aisle, waiting rooms, crosswalks, a sink full of dirty dishes. We’ve begun to limit God to the grand. If He is Orchestrator of all our days, then He is surely in the mundane as much as He is in the monumental.

His hand reaches from the molecular to the mountainous. We are invited to partake and create in both, and cannot be deceived into thinking only the noticeable and the glamorous are holy.

Serving the gift well is stewarding it in the unnoticed, the simple, the repetitive, and all the spaces we inhabit day in and day out. Quite often, we will not see the cosmic effects of our creativity. But the artist – whether in the kitchen, at a desk, canvas or piano, working nine to five, nurturing children, or bent over in prayer – knows, without fully comprehending such an immensity, that both the gifting and the Giver are greater than herself.

Creating for the Sake of Creating

While social media serves as a wonderful tool for creatives and makers, we can become quick to show the world the finished product of our gifts and forget to partake in the splendor of the creative process. Intimacy takes place in the depths of creativity with God. You get access to create in the secret space He first formed you in, a space only known by you and Him that isn’t meant to be public to everyone.

When you create not for profit, not for ministry, not to post on social media, but simply for joy and delight, you find fulfillment because you are stewarding what God gave you in the garden. Like David making music in the fields among flocks, serving the gift means learning to delight in the creative process with Abba, where only His eyes see the beginning work of your hands.

The Father made us to enjoy the beauty of His created world, wiring us with five senses to experience and partake in His creativity. He gives each of His imagers their own specific capacity to appreciate the seen and unseen, tangible and ungraspable. I delight in lingering on the sounds of a kitchen full of company and the syntax of poetry read aloud. You may take joy in the textures and tones of a painting, or gathering wildflowers and digging your hands into soil. How wild and wonderful it is that our Maker formed each of us with our own awareness of the created world. Allow the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the wonderous newness of God’s creativity, and let Him lead you into intentional communication with Him through the cultivation of your gifts in all spaces of life.