Today’s comments are very brief because of other reflection exercises included in this service…

It has been about five years since I began playing around with writing poetry.  A woman, a published poet, I am vaguely acquainted with was teaching a short class at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center.  So I thought, why not?  At our first meeting about eight of us did an introductory litany: name, job, why we were there, what we wrote.  When my turn came around I said I am a pastor.  And that I didn’t write.

“Wait a minute,” the teacher said. “You’re a pastor.  So you write sermons, right?”

“Every week.”

“So you’re a writer,” she said.  “And you meet a deadline every week.”

I was a little surprised to have a somewhat well-known local poet declare me a writer.  I thought that anything I did in my day-to-day living must not count.

I dare imagine that if some of us were asked, “What creative work do you do?” that the answer would be “none.”  Perhaps we have it stuck in our heads that being creative means composing music or painting gallery-worthy art or writing a publishable novel or some other high-flying thing.

So it’s worth remembering that we all are innately creative; it’s just that we’ve forgotten that.  Or have had it drilled out of us.  But the simple fact that we are all innately creative is implicit in today’s verses from the creation story in Genesis.  Humans are made in the image of God.  We carry some of the likeness and character of the Divine.  We partake of Holy Presence.  As beings made in the image of the Creator, we also create.  “We are created to be creators,” says John O’Donohue. (Beauty, 7)  “We are from God and carry in our hearts and minds the ripples of the divine mind…at the deepest level creativity is holiness.” (Beauty, 142).

Touching that holiness is rarely about “high” art.  Creativity appears among us, and in our everyday lives in numerous ways—gardening, building and designing things, knitting, story-telling, cooking, photography, playing music, card-making, quilting, doodling, dancing around (even just a little bit).  If you have ever played imaginatively with a child or grandchild (even something as simple as growling like an animal when reading a story) you have acted creatively.  Thinking about a dinner party menu and how to create a comfortable, hospitable atmosphere is creative.  Planting a tree or shrub or flower bulb uses creativity, since you are imagining what you would like your landscape to look like.  “Aha” moments come to us because of our innate creativity.

All of us “do” creative work.  We just might need to learn to look at ourselves and our experiences a little differently.  Stop worrying about being perfect or accomplished.  Relax.  Play a bit. Explore.  Recognize that you already are creative (regardless of messages you’ve received).  And enjoy.

We are made in the image of the Maker and Shaper.  We are made to create.  Discovering and exploring our own inner creator can be one way to connect with the Ultimate Creator.  And to have some joy along the way.  And to offer a bit of ourselves to the ongoing life around us.

-Rev. Ruth Moerdyk

Scripture: Genesis 1:26-27