Invention, Creation and Glory

[HKHaugan]

Invention, Creation and Glory

 There is a decided difference between invention and creation.  Invention is taking pieces of what exists and putting them together in a unique way.  Creation is starting something new not out of what is there but completely new and unique out of what is not there.

Invention is envisioning a physical material need and using available material resources to construct something that will meet the need.  Distance is overcome by inventing devices to bridge the gap.  The five senses of our bodies can be enhanced by inventions that overcome barriers to their productivity.  All of this is in the sensory physical dimension. 

There is another dimension however that demands something more.  It is the unseen nature of human beings that determines how they survive, relate and overcome that which keeps them from being fulfilled in their mind, heart and spirit; where they reason, feel and find motivation.  In fact, invention is one aspect derived from an inner unseen motivation based on the desire (unseen) to benefit others.  Whether it is inventing the light bulb, the car, dynamite, computer, hearing aid, glasses, clothing, airplane, it comes from the invisible mind that believes, the heart that trusts and the spirit that motivates.  That invisible process is centered in what we call being a human individual. 

What is both the unseen and the seen has been conceived and created by the mind, heart and Spirit of God.  It is a spiritually conceived and spiritually initiated visible Creation; the expanded structure we call the universe in all of its incredible massiveness.  But its existence is more clearly apprehended in a spiritual perception we call beauty.  Our inner being reflects on Creation and the quality that emerges from it.  It is a visible reality that has an invisible quality.  Our physical body has been gifted with an inner sense of our unique ability to see quality.  It is being an image of the Creator, the one mind, heart and spirit behind everything.  Thus, we see why Genesis 1 describes us, you and I, as God’s images in a way no other literature or man-made document can.  There is a very special beauty intended to be seen in each person who has ever been born. 

Jesus prayed that beauty for us,“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:22–23).”

If there is a task for us as believers, it is to establish or reestablish that truth with everyone we meet.  Whether they are the most wonderful or the most obnoxious, the most law abiding or the most criminal, the most true-hearted or most deceptive.  To see the beauty in every person is to embrace the basic truth about them and encourage them by how we accept them.  It is a moment we have been given.  It is a creative moment.  That creative moment is a brand-new moment unique to you and me, given us to react like we never have before since every moment and every person is new to that moment.  That’s the element of Creation in us. 

We are made to be creative with the moments we have been given to enable another person to see what God sees in them.  Even in the worst moments of our self-doubt, self-pity and self-defensiveness, knowing how God sees us through His Son Jesus, those dark moments fade, and we see others as the Lord sees us.  That’s when relational ministry begins, the willingness to be open to the Spirit’s leading toward them.  Ministry to others is the creativity of the Spirit moving in each of us.  It is the glory of God, the beauty of God functioning, the Spirit of God glorifying, beautifying the world (2Cor.4:17-18).