Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is a stunning example of human co-creating. For that matter, so are the paints and pigments themselves!
We’re Co-Creators of heaven and earth.
Sound bizarre? Here are some thoughts on what it means and why it matters.
My last post offered a few thoughts about an “earthy heaven,” this leads me to today’s post – that people have a role in creation. Humans have a God-ordained role of “creating” here on earth. And through that, we also have a part in making heaven. Now, let me explain a bit before I get tarred and feathered for heresy!
It was in the Garden of Eden where God gave people the ability and the mandate to be fruitful and increase, to rule and subdue (steward) everything that God created. God planted the garden in Eden, and then He asked – and no doubt showed – Adam and Eve how to grow crops in that garden.
What an amazing discovery that must have been for Adam and Eve!
God showed Adam and Eve that they could take the raw ingredients made by God – seeds, soil, water and sun – and combine those with their own labor and know-how to produce something new, something which had not been there before, something good!
We don’t know how many crops they grew before sin put thorns in the ground, but it must have been an amazing process of discovering what they could do with a few God-given resources and their God-given ability to think and discover in order to “unlock” the potential in the soil. Unlike God, mankind does not create ” ex nihilo” (from nothing); but God gave us the ability and mandate to create afresh from what He created first.
But it doesn’t start and end with soil. When people “unlock” the potential in the world around them, they are doing exactly what God told us to – to rule over and subdue His creation, and to be fruitful and increase. The whole, long process of discovery and creation which allows me to type this post out on my laptop and post it on the internet is a fulfilment of God’s purposes for us and gifting in us to rule and subdue over creation – to create and unlock the potential God put all around us!
What I find AMAZING is that, someday, God will take the results of people’s creativity on earth and brings it into heaven!
In Rev. 21 we have an amazing picture of the New Jerusalem, a city whose architect and building is God. Think about that for a second. Today, on earth, mankind make cities. In heaven, God takes what mankind does – build cities – and takes that into eternity with an eternal city. This city is paved in gold and adorned with precious stones, which man figured out how to get them out of the earth and refine or polish to shine so beautifully.
I’m pretty sure that heaven is not just a place far away where gravity does not apply. And I know that heaven is not just a return to the world as it was in the Garden of Eden. No, it is a heaven that is even better than the Garden of Eden. Because God will redeem what man has created and bring that into heaven. At that point, things just get better. With redeemed minds and redeemed hearts we will, I believe, continue to unlock, discover, and create as we understand more and more about how amazing God’s creation is.
And we have so much to learn! Einstein’s string theory suggests that there could be many more dimensions to reality beyond the four that we know of (11 at the lower end, or 26 at the higher end). Who knows? Scientists discovered the so-called “God particle” and (as we Christians would expect!) discovered that this particle hints at new layers of sub-atomic reality we know nothing about. That is on the small end of the scale – at the other end, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the cosmos!
Eternity is gonna be good. And it’s gonna be busy. But I bet my new laptop is gonna be really, really sweet!