Creativity; A Drop Of The Unknown

 

Have you ever sat in front of a keyboard attempting to describe something Spiritual that you understand by experience alone with just physical words? What I mean is when the Holy Spirit impacts some aspect of your life in such a way that all you can do is attempt to describe it with words that never seem to fit.

   Because of this, it now makes a lot of sense to me of Jesus’ use of parables to the people. Take his parables concerning the coming Kingdom of God. He never rested on just one example, he used many. From mustard seed to weddings, he brought forth little windows of understanding for the human mind to try and grasp.

  It is the human mind's capability to comprehend symbology and abstract concepts that seem to work as a gateway for many of us to peek through the windows. Perhaps this could be one of the reasons Jesus said you must enter the Kingdom like a child. A Child has an imagination and can quickly grasp all sorts of concepts our adult mind struggles with.

  Watch children play with their toys, or better yet watch children who have lost interest in the commercial toys, turn everyday items into their playthings. That's imagination at warp speed.

  Why do we need creativity?

  The first job given to mankind was not to tend the garden, but the naming of all the creatures. But to do this Adam had to be like the one who made him. To do this he had to be creative to name all life. Creativity goes before management, and the spark of true creativity will help us on our quest, regardless of where ever the quest leads us. 

  True creativity comes from the author of creativity, God. And it is this spark of child-like wonder, no matter how small that we can grasp the slightest whisper of spiritual concepts. In this moment, as the late Rich Mullins says in his song “Hard,” we “can dress like flowers and eat like birds.”

  Consider Nicodemus, for decades this Pharisees’ mind was ruled by legalistic order and stone-hard interpretations of the law of Moses. Now the living law of Moses stood before him, and Jesus had to wreak his thinking with symbolic truth. “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3 Shocked, Nicodemus's mind had little time to adjust when Jesus started overloading his mind with talk of spirit giving birth to the spirit and not knowing where the wind blows. 

  Jesus had to “shock” this old man's mind to come alive and step up to a new level of communication. In effect, Nicodemus needed a spiritual earthquake in his soul. He needed a spark of creative life to get the fire going.

  Communication needs creativity. On Earth, we often need to read between the lines of people's communication, and in the spiritual realm, we need to understand the things our words fail to describe.

  Creativity is in many ways its own form of communication. I am sure you have heard the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This quote comes from 1914, the dawn of early photography.  It goes hand in hand with a Russian saying from 1861, “The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book.”

  This is because images contain far more detail than words, and our mind can not only assimilate it quicker, but we can extrapolate and create information that is not seen but implied. Especially if your personal knowledge is somehow related to what you are seeing. Let me give you an example.

  My Wife has a copy of this famous painting by Frederic Remington. What you see is a man on a horse. Let me tell you what I see. This man is of mixed Native American and Spanish bloodlines. Sitting on a tired horse,  both of them most likely have endured a hard winter together and it is now early spring on the prairie before the grass grows. Both are most likely hungry.

  He has in his wanderings, traveled between the deserts of the southwest and the Canadian frontier. And because of this he has most likely had good communication with northern tribes.

  How did I get all that?

  It was the detail Frederic Remington put in his painting. The Hudson Bay blanket turned into a coat, the face of the man and horse, his mustache, the state of the prairie grass, and his rifle covered in leather. All these things point to a period of history in the West.

  This is why things like dreams and visions from the Holy Spirit often deliver very complex messages. In my experience, the best understanding comes in time, prayer, and groups of like-minded believers who will see details others did not.

  Do not judge a vision or a dream too quickly, often more comes in time to add to your understanding, so don’t get in a hurry. Godly imagination is a good thing, and at times it works like a springboard in other areas of your life. It often crumbles legalist thoughts and expands possibilities. If you are a problem-solver type of person, it helps to provide solutions to closed doors. If you are a builder, then it can enhance and modify the construction process. 

  This is why some storywriters catch their readers off guard with surprising twists. Or evangelists find open doors where others only see locks.

  So don’t be afraid to be creative, pick up a hobby and start. As the old saying go’s, “The water never parts until your feet get wet.”