The creativity of God amazes me whenever I stop to think about it. He has fashioned beautiful vistas of every kind, a never-ending supply of fascinating animals and plants, and of course humans of all shapes and sizes. But when I think about how uniquely He made me, sometimes I get frustrated. Why am I such a complicated creature? Why can’t I fit neatly into all those personality profiles? Meyers-Briggs, DISC, the Enneagram: I’m always split down the middle between a couple of their profiles, which makes me feel like a complicated person. (Whoever invented the term “ambivert” is one of my favorite people!)
But what if it’s not because I’m “complicated” but because God made me just a little extra different in this way? And even for those who do fit perfectly into a specific profile, there are infinite ways that it gets fleshed out in each person. One ENFJ, or whatever, is totally different than another ENFJ in many ways, even if they have similarities in their personality. Each person on this planet is unique and special. And that’s pretty amazing.
As a “wanna-be” fiction writer, I have taken on the daunting task of creating characters. It is one of the most difficult tasks of writing fiction, in my opinion. There is so much to consider, for each and every person in a story. Personality profiles, physical features, past experiences, learning styles, Multiple Intelligences, cultural impacts, birth order, inner conflict… I get exhausted just thinking about it, and I have to fight defaulting to 2-dimensional stock characters. How is it that God doesn’t get exhausted in His creation? No two snowflakes the same, knowing the number of the stars in the sky and the hairs on our heads, we were knit together in our mother’s womb, and all of the other many examples we find in the Psalms (okay, the Psalms might not mention snowflakes, but I’ll forgive the authors- they didn’t know what they were missing!); how is this possible?
I think it’s a combination of His infinite-ness, His love to create and attention to detail, and His love of each of us as individuals in addition to all of humanity. His infinity is shown in both nature (the aforementioned snowflakes, etc.) and even in math. You don’t believe me about math? Many years ago, my brother introduced me to the concept of fractals. According to The Fractal Foundation (yes, evidently fractals are cool enough to get their own foundation), “A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales.” They exist in nature in things like snowflakes, seashells, and others. Check out this link or research it yourself if you’re not familiar with fractals. I’m not very philosophical, but the fact that this concept exists brings out the sense of wonder in me and my awe of God.
My mentor lent me a book about getting over artist’s block, called The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, by Julia Cameron. It wasn’t written for Christians specifically, but it does base itself on the premise that God is the ultimate Creator--in every way. In it, I discovered that God loves it when we exercise the creativity He instilled in us, because it honors His own nature of creativity. I’d never thought of it that way. I get easily hung up on thoughts like “Why should I create things? I’m not really very original or creative, so I should just just let the real artists do what their natural talent does.” But from what I got out of that book, enjoying and using the little bit of creativity in me is actually an act of worship to Him. Wow! That humbled me out of the self-deprecation of my artist-ness. And when you think about it, His act of creating us to have our own creativity is a fractal. God is the main original shape, but in His creation, he multiplies His creativity by instilling a bit of it in each of us. We then create things, which inspires others to create, and the pattern multiplies exponentially, even if not quite symmetrically like in a true fractal.
Mind blown yet? It’s okay if not. I invite you to contemplate His creativity and infinity for yourself. Take music, for example. How many songs are made from the same combinations of notes or chords, just rearranged a little? We never seem to run out of possibilities for beautiful or interesting songs. Or the fact that no matter how many beautiful mountain vistas I see, a new one still takes my breath away. Why? It’s just a different combination of angles of rock, right? But it’s still new and beautiful, every time.
What are the things in life/nature/any other creation of God’s that cause you to wonder in awe at His creativity? How do these things remind you that you are a special creation of the Master Artist, and loved just as you are?
About the Author
Jessie is an educator, currently in the role of academic advisor at a charter school after teaching there and overseas. She is also a novice writer, with several books in various stages and a (long-neglected) blog about the journeys of women. She is very excited to join the CitySalt blog team. She has been blessed by a few communities of Christian writers that have encouraged her dream. She lives with her trusty sidekick cat, Arwen in the foothills of South Eugene, where she can go hiking within minutes of the sun coming out from behind the clouds.