In the beginning, God created....

What do you have in your hands right now?

I am in the midst of making my 7th crib-sized quilt in 4 years. The joy of 7 grandchildren being added to our family has given me opportunity to create a personalized quilt for each grandchild. Thankfully, when I began, I decided that since the first two grandsons were going to be born within a few months of one another, and shortly after we returned from living abroad, I needed to keep the pattern basic.  It has been amazing how diverse they seem, even with the same pattern.

As I am marking the quilting pattern on the latest quilt, I am meditating on the idea of creating and its role in our lives. Through the years, I have found that the desire to create something with my hands is central to who I am.  Sometimes it is working on a scrapbook of the previous year.  Sometimes it is a sewing project for our home.  Sometimes it is clipping flowers from the garden to bring fresh beauty into the house.  (Thanks, Bob, for understanding!!)

I truly believe that this desire to create is a  common human desire, as well as evidence of our being created in the image of God. In Genesis God declares that He is The Creator and that we are created in His image.  Wouldn't one of the evidences of our being His creation be that we have a desire to create?


Your creativity may be an ability to draw with words.  Or maybe you bring life to a canvas.  Maybe you take plants from a nursery and put them in the ground in an amazing arrangement.  Maybe you tell an awesome story with a camera. Maybe with lyrics or melody you deeply move those who hear your creation.  It might be that you pick up a musical instrument and bless those around you. Maybe you see things in science or mathematics that no one has recognized before. Maybe you create with paper or fabric, wood or food, maybe by doing some computer coding or solving an issue for which no one else has seen the solution.  But whatever it is, not only does it bring joy to you, it also brings joy to those around you.

I am often amazed by friends who can take the ordinary, the simple, the  plain, or even the discarded and transform it into something of great beauty and art, because of their creativity.

There are seasons in our lives when we have more opportunity to be creative than others.  Our lives at times are seemingly so filled with responsibilities, that the time to be creative appears to be limited.  These are precious times to seek the Creator of all things and ask Him to show you ways to take what He has put into your hand and glorify Him by using it in a creative way.

I remember as a homeschool mom trying to work on a twin bed quilt and seemingly not making progress.  We were studying the character quality of Endurance as the focus of our unit study (Thanks, KONOS!)  We read about the experience of great explorers and talked about how a mountain is climbed one step at a time.  I realized that I was looking for large blocks of time in which to create.  There would be no long blocks of time at that point in my life, but there were moments here and there.  I set a goal of spending 10 minutes a day quilting.  There were very few days that I couldn't spare 10 minutes.  Many times that was all I had, but I did have 10 minutes.  It was amazing to watch that quilt finally get quilted.

I think of Moses, who tried to convince God that he had nothing of value that the Lord could use.  Instead, God asked him what he had in his hand. (Exodus 4)  God took that simple rod and used it to bring Himself great honor and glory among the nations.

What's in your hand? What moments do you have that you can use to create?  How can you use these moments to demonstrate the fact that you are created in the image of God?

Ask the Creator to use what's in your hand.