Collaboration with the Creator
Wherever you are right now, take a deep breath and just take in the richness of the beauty all around you! Go ahead, take a second to look out of the nearest window or step outside and observe the wind in the trees, the sun on your skin. What a gift we have to feel and experience God‘s beautiful creation screaming his glory and proclaiming his mighty handiwork! Maybe as you read this you’re taking a sip of tea or coffee, or enjoying a meal. On your next sip or bite, really hone in on the deliciously complex and life giving flavors. Wow! Right? Do you remember the last professional sporting event you went to? I know I can recall the energy in a baseball stadium when the home team scored and the thousands of people in one united voice victoriously cheered! The overwhelming experience of genuine unity, excitement, redemption, praise, disbelief, and happiness amongst the crowd filled my heart and soul to the point of tears! I remember audibly asking myself “why the heck am I crying?!”
In these seemingly ordinary moments, there’s actually something divine to discover under the surface. You’re not just looking at another tree or blue sky; you’re not just eating or drinking fuel that sustains your body; you’re not just witnessing some people hitting, throwing or kicking a ball to score points. If you look past the exterior, you might realize and experience the extraordinary; something life-changing that’s been there the entire time. From the very beginning, God set in motion this timeline we all are journeying on. He created man in his image, and told us to be part of his story. Even before God spoke life into existence, He intentionally designed this life for us to collaborate with him in such a unique, and powerful way. God didn’t just create everything around us, plop us in the middle of it and say “Okay now listen to me and do exactly as I say!” No! In his loving instructions for us he also has given us the authority, (yes, the authority!) to collaborate and create with him!
Genesis 1:26:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”
Genesis 1:28:
'And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ‘
If you stepped outside as you started to read this, the greenery you’re looking at is perhaps within a parking lot or maybe lining the median in the street. Yes, God has created and sustained the greenery around you, but he didn’t choose to place them in their current locations; people did! All the ingredients for that delicious grande, iced caramel, double flat white, shaken oat milk, half shot of espresso, decaffeinated strawberry refresher with a dash of cinnamon macchiato didn’t just fall from the sky into a cup for the hefty price of $5.45 plus tax! Yes, God has created and sustained those ingredients for your favorite drink (complex, as it may be), but he didn’t invent it; people did! Same goes for your favorite meal, or snack. As much as I can say “kudos to the chefs” at my favorite breakfast joint for constructing my go-to meal, so I can both sustain my energy and revel in the magnificence of flavor, I wouldn’t be able to give honor to the chefs if it weren’t for the incredible ingenuity God has given to them to create such a heavenly food experience. Yes, heavenly. There’s a reason, we use words such as heavenly and divine to describe nature or food; we are experiencing just that: a collaboration with the Divine.
Are you starting to see it? The collaborative work between us and God all around?
Even within the fabric of something as seemingly man-made as sports, when you strip away all the loud music, flashy advertisements, and very… very, salty food, what you’re really experiencing is God’s collaboration with man. Throughout history, different persons have at one time or another stood in beautiful, expansive pastures and envisioned something greater than just a patch of grass. I believe God gave these visions of what the grass and dirt could be to form with human hands something otherworldly. Whether saint or sinner, we are all made in the image of God and display his attributes. When watching a sport, fellow image-bearers, who have dedicated years to perfecting their God-given abilities, demonstrate their skills in a competitive realm, so that we can congregate and partake in the spectacle. Yes, God has created and sustained the natural materials. Yes, he has given the athlete’s their abilities, but the collaborative relationship between man and God is all around us. God provides the material, and man collaborates and creates. It started with Adam, and continues with you.
Hopefully you too can begin to see what God has been showing me lately. That he has intentionally designed this life for us to collaborate with and experience him using the talents he has given to saints and sinners alike. Ask God in this very moment to help you see the beautiful collaboration between the Creator and his creation every day. I pray you will experience the Lord in such a unique, powerful and truly otherworldly way.
