"Creativity"
By Dr. John Williams

One of the most important characteristics of God, the creator of the universe is "creativity." In Genesis 1, the story of the creation of the world is vividly portrayed, in which the order of creation should be noted.

The Environment or the Atmosphere was created first, and then the Creatures were created next.  The environment or atmosphere we are referring to includes the sky, land, water, the sun, moon, etc. which were created first, and then the stationary or immobile grass, herbs, shrubs and fruit yielding trees; and finally the self–perpetuating, living and moving creatures were created, starting from the simplest to the most sophisticated creatures. Further, it is stated in Genesis1 that God created man in His own image and after His likeness!

It is interesting to note the similarity between the 'creation' of God, and 'the designing and the manufacturing' of things by men, from a simpler to more complicated and sophisticated things, as time progressed and the civilization changed. It is important to note that man is a creation of God, and God is the Creator. God created everything from nothing, but man needs some raw materials to make anything. Whatever man makes is fragile and perishable, but whatever God made had a self-regulating, self-renewing and self perpetuating characteristic to continue its existence until such time God decides to limit the life span of the living creatures. Similarly for the artificial things made by the man, he determines as to how long he wants to keep them or destroy them. In one sense, the man who was created by God in His own image and after His likeness, is imitating God and trying to do things as God.

The word creativity can be substituted by designing, and as we know through the human history, that man has always been thinking, planning, designing and manufacturing more and more beautiful, sophisticated, automatic, self regulating and self correcting, maintenance free and long lasting things. We can say that God created everything from nothing through His word, and this is what we call as something 'supernatural', and everything that man has created or manufactured was created with some natural substance such as mud, wood, metal, etc. Further, the things created by man are corrupted, damaged, tarnished or become irreparable at some point. Until then, these things are fixed to the extent possible, and then they are discarded, destroyed or disposed of in some way, and ultimately they begin to pollute the natural environment and become a part of it. All garbage and artificial waste materials are recycled and used again and again, or they simply pollute the nature. In this process, the air, the earth and the water are polluted, and causes or spreads diseases to the living creatures. Corruption, pollution and contamination of the environment, through the disposal of garbage of households and the industrial waste, makes the natural environment more and more harmful for the living creatures to live a healthy life. What we are referring to as natural environment includes land, forest, rivers, lakes, sea, sky etc. which affect the natural and normal living conditions in our modern times.

While man has to find ways to dispose of all the household garbage and the industrial waste, in a very planned and sophisticated way, through modern sewerage, recycling, burning into ashes through different kinds of furnaces etc., God in His infinite wisdom, has planned and developed, using His creative ideas, a built-in natural, self regulating and cleansing system, which in the natural process, takes care of this problem in a variety of ways, and some of them are mentioned below for our information:

 · Carbon dioxide that is exhaled by people and animals, into the atmosphere, is inhaled by the plant kingdom, and oxygen is exhaled by them, so that we can have fresh oxygen in the atmosphere once again, for healthy living and survival. This is not a co-incidence or an accident. The creative mind of God, the creator of the universe, has designed and created the animal and the plant kingdom, to coexist side-by-side to complement each other.

·  How God, the creator of the universe has planned to position the planets like sun, moon and earth in the sky, away from each other, precisely at a certain distance, and at the same time making them rotate in an orbit, at a certain regulated speed, is certainly not an accident, but is created and regulated by God. I am sure that the reader of this article will now understand that the entire planet or the atmosphere where the temperature is precisely regulated to make it safe for the living creatures, to live comfortably, was designed and created by God.

· It should not be difficult to anyone now, to give credit to the supreme Spiritual Being, the master mind, who is responsible for creating the universe, planet earth, with an animal and a plant kingdom, intermingling, interacting and inter-depending on each other. It is important at this juncture to fully comprehend the word 'designing' which is a prerequisite for creating anything.

· Man who has been created in the image and the likeness of God also, has a mind to think creatively, conceptualize and create all the intricate, sophisticated and beautiful cities and everything that goes along with it, to enable millions of people to live comfortably and safely, and to get the their daily supplies which are partially processed in factories located in different places, and transported all over the country by trains, trucks and planes.

· We know how technology has developed through scientific research over a period of nearly six thousand years, which enables man to create all artificial things which are needed for his daily living today.

· Since we know that man designs and creates artificial things on the planet earth, it should not be hard to accept the fact that there must be a 'master mind', referred to in this article as God.

· If all the artificial things on the planet have been planned, designed and created by man, it logically follows that all natural things should have been designed and created by 'God' the Supreme, Supernatural, Spiritual Being who is the creator and the sustainer of the universe.

· Even to maintain the cleanliness of the physical environment of this earth, God has created certain kinds of animals, birds and even fishes, which consume all dirt and filth, so that it will not pollute the environment, and make it unfit or dangerous to live.

If a person fails to understand this logical truth and reality, the only other explanation he can give is to say that over a period of 6000 years, in the natural world, through the changes in weather conditions, eruption of the earth, landslides, volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, thunder, lightening, forest fire etc., what all we have today in our civilized and modern world came into existence by themselves and were placed where they are now, including the machinery and the technology that we have now.

If there is any kind of creation, there must be a creator. Since we have been created in the highest order in the image and the likeness of God, we should realize that the greatest asset that we have is to use our brain, think, plan and create things as and when we need, which is also known as creativity!

-The End-