We Don’t Create In isolation – Part two
So, last week I talked about how artisans don’t isolate themselves from everyone while they come up with their ideas. When we’re creating something new, we cannot sit on a desert island, away from everyone, staring at the sea while drinking coconut juice all day and start the process. We don’t create in isolation because we were not meant to create things isolated from everyone else.
Genesis 3:18 says, ‘It’s not good for the man to be alone, so I will create a companion for him, a perfectly suited partner.’ God created a companion for the man and filled the void of the isolation Adam felt. Eve joined Adam, and together, side by side they would continue the on-going work of creation. We don’t create in isolation because God didn’t create the universe in isolation either.
Forgotten dreams have been awakened and aroused again during this season of lockdown. As artisans, we hold the keys to a new future that we can create, and we don’t need to do it on our own. God is leaning over His beautifully carved oak balcony in heaven, and He’s so excited to see what you’ll imagine, create and explore in this chapter of the unfolding story of creation. He’s leaning over that beautiful balcony and He’s whispering to you, “Let’s collaborate and create something magnificent together.”
In Genesis, chapters 35 to 39 Moses gathered the entire community of Israel together to discuss the instructions that were given to him by God in building the Tabernacle. Genesis 35:5-10 says, “…Let those with willing hearts bring the following as an offering to the Eternal One: gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet thread; fine linens; goat hair; rams’ skins dyed red; sea-cow skins; acacia wood; olive oil for lamps; spices for anointing oil and fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other stones for the high priest’s vest and breast piece. Let all who are gifted with wisdom and skill come and make these things the Eternal One has instructed.”
This laborious project was taken on by the entire community. Not like the forced labour the Israelites endured under Pharaoh back in Egypt, where Pharaoh’s taskmasters made them create something that glorified him. No, this was an artisan’s dream to create something that glorified Yahweh. A project that used all the talents and gifts that God gave to the people. Gifts and talents that came from the Trinity, the heart of God that pointed back to heaven because everyone’s labour all came from the people’s willing hearts to create something made by God and for God. The freedom to create the Tabernacle did not come from isolation, but a collaborative effort that was driven by willing hearts.
The purist motivation in creating something is doing it for love. When we bring what we create as an offering to God then you’ll find that void you once felt disappear. When God takes our old heart and creates a new one, we develop a love for other people that wasn’t there before. On a personal note, I have been clearly be given the gift of writing. Now if I used my gift to just please myself and acuminate enough money to then go and buy a yacht for myself so I could go sit on a desert island forever, I’ll soon feel the emptiness of my gift. But if I had the attitude that my gift of writing was not actually about me but about what I can create for other people, now my gift of storytelling is building something else. If my writing helps someone else to live out a better story for their own lives and they discover their true identity in Christ, then my gift has created has built a bridge for another person to find Jesus.
Do you see it artisan? Do you see how much better it is when we don’t create something in isolation? God has big, huge, enormous, gigantic plans for your gifts and talents. He wants to create something in you so He can create something through you. The artisan’s tools build and create something that is filled with His goodness and light that draws people back to Him. However, be warned, as artisans we cannot contain, tame or domesticate God. We cannot fit the greatest artisan the world has ever known into our plans and ambitions or attach Him like a sewn-on piece of cloth to our dreams. We need to have willing hearts to be able to let God weave our gifts, wisdom and skills in the tapestry of His unfolding story that is called creation.
