The Easter holiday was coming up fast and a
week at home was something I was looking forward to. I love the garden at this
time of year, and a grotty area in front of the garage filled with old plastic
containers got my pulse racing. So a week of trips to the dump, followed by
digging post holes through tarmac to the back breaking work of patio slabs and
lugging gravel have all brought transformation. Today we look out upon a
restful seating area with bird and insect boxes, all created in a week’s hard
work and winter months of imagination!
To create is to touch the divine, and
remind ourselves that we are made in His image. God rejects the cookie cutter
approach with mankind, flowers, butterflies and yes, even snow-flakes! No
heavenly factory mass production line where everyone looks the same, speaks the
same language and laughs at the same jokes.
Yet strangely our Western world is losing
its diverse predilections. We dress from the same few shops, eat mass-produced
ready meals, robotically play the same computer games with a billion others.
Our homes are straight from a catalogue. Perfection in cardboard boxes ready
for self-assembly and all you need is a screwdriver.
No, making stuff is the release of the
real you. It may be digging a new border and planting it with fruit trees,
painting a picture, making a mosaic from discarded tiles or cooking a squirrel
stew. It brings you in touch with hidden talents, it produces something unique
in this world - imperfect certainly - but a one off. To write, draw, paint,
make and create is to produce something, no matter how small, that never
existed in the world before you made it. It is to touch the power of the
creator who fashions a stunning universe and brilliant creation each day before
our eyes. It is to remind ourselves that we too are being shaped and fashioned
by the creator throughout our lives, to be made ready for eternity.
