Creative Genius



When we talk about God's creativity, we usually focus on the natural world. And that is appropriate! Genesis tells us that God is responsible for the diversity of the natural world (however you understand that the diversity came about). But what about God's creativity in other ways? Does God still create -- or did God stop creating after Day 6? This sermon might make you think about other ways that God shows creative genius far beyond our own!



It is impossible to go to a zoo, or an aquarium, or an aviary and not be overwhelmed by the diversity of animals there! Animals have four legs, six legs, eight legs, and sometimes they have no legs at all. Some animals swim in the ocean, some walk on land, and some soar in the air. If you go to a zoo, you can see lizards, armadillos, polar bears, penguins, and frogs… and that doesn’t even count the myriad species of insects that exist!  You can see road runners, flamingos, ostriches, hummingbirds, and all sorts of parrots. And if you go to an aquarium, you can see stingrays, jellyfish, hermit crabs, and great white sharks.

The diversity of creation is impressive for anyone to ponder; but there is an extra dimension for those of us who believe that a loving Creator caused all of it to exist. The Creator who made elephants and lightning bugs, earthworms and oysters, storks and koala bears must be incredibly creative! How else can you explain the diversity of life that coexists on this planet that we call Earth? And our Creator is not one who always does the same thing at the same time in the same way. No, God chooses to create sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. Lizards, for example, come in little (geckos), medium (iguanas), and big (Komodo dragons). If you fly, you’re not necessarily a bird. You might be a dragonfly or a bumblebee – or a bat! And some animals don’t seem to know what they are! The duckbilled platypus, for example, has a bill like a duck, webbed feet like an otter, a tail like a beaver, and even though it’s a mammal, it lays eggs like a bird.

If all this weren’t enough, life exists in places where we didn’t believe it could live at all. Whenever I hear someone saying that “no life can exist” somewhere, I smile to myself, and expect that in the next few months, scientists will discover a new form of life that lives in that place where “no life can exist.” One particular type of insect, for example, lives more than a mile below the ground in the total darkness of caves. It finds food with its antennae that can pick up tiny traces of chemicals in the surrounding air. Fish and crabs can live more than 5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean in the deepest chasms on earth. And some bacteria make their home in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park where the temperature is just a few degrees below boiling all year round. God can create form of life that we can’t even imagine!

Now, I’m not spending so much time on the diversity of creation just so that you can marvel at God’s creativity where animals are concerned – although I certainly hope that you do that! No, I’ve given you such a long list of different kinds of animals to demonstrate that God is capable of great creativity. If you agree that God’s creativity is reflected by the diversity of life in the natural world; then we can probably also agree that God is capable of being creative in other ways, as well. God is creative in situations, too; especially situations where we see no way out – no solution – no way that anything could possibly turn out well. Those are the times when God uses divine creativity to open new opportunities for us where there are none that we can see!

You’ve probably heard the saying, “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. It’s a good saying; but I don’t think that it goes far enough. I think it would be better to say, “When a door closes, God creates a window.” I think that’s a better saying because God is not always responsible for the doors that are slammed in our faces. Much of the time – most of the time, maybe – other people are the ones slamming the door on us. That’s when God not only opens a window for us; God uses divine creativity to make a window where there wasn’t one there in the first place!

Maybe a story will explain what I mean.

In the year 1847, a boy was born in the Midwestern United States. I’ll call him “Ed.” Ed was curious, but his mind jumped from topic to topic seemingly at random. Today, Ed would be labeled as ADHD and treated with Ritalin; but in the 1850’s, no such diagnosis – or drug – existed. Ed lasted only 3 months in school; and then the teacher in his one-room school house expelled him. His hearing was always poor – it was probably an inherited condition – and it was made even worse when Ed was boxed on the ears. It left him deaf in one ear and with only 20% hearing in the other. By the age of 14, Ed was virtually deaf, had only 3 months of education, and suffered from ADHD.

It doesn’t sound like Ed had much of a future, does it? I don’t see any door that could open for a boy like that. But our creative God can create windows where there are no doors!

The first window came in the form of the young son of the local stationmaster. One day, the boy wandered onto the railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train. Ed happened to be nearby and saved the little boy’s life. As a reward for Ed’s bravery, the stationmaster taught him Morse Code. At the time, being able to use a telegraph was like being able to use a state-of-the-art computer today. Ed was able to work as a telegrapher, first for the railroad and then for Western Union. As he worked, he travelled; and everywhere he went, he soaked up the education that life sent his way. But his inability to focus eventually got him in trouble. Western Union finally fired him for "not concentrating on his responsibilities and for doing too much moonlighting." Ed borrowed $35, and went to New York, because he had heard that there was opportunity for work there.

But there were no doors for Ed in New York, either. He lived in there for three weeks sleeping in the basement of a building in the financial district, eating scraps of food that he begged from street vendors. But then, God created window number two. One morning, Ed was wandering through the office building in which he slept. One of the brokerage firms that he passed was in a panic: a critically important stock-ticker in the office had broken down, and no one had any idea how to fix it. Ed had been doing a bit of snooping around, so he had a pretty good idea of what that stock-ticker was supposed to do. After spending a few seconds examining the device, Ed pushed a loose spring back to its proper place. The stock-ticker began to run perfectly again; and the office manager hired Ed on the spot to make all such repairs for his company for a salary of $300.00 per month – a virtual fortune at that time. With a job that allowed him plenty of free time and a salary that he could live on, Ed was able to pursue what he loved to do – tinker with things. Although his mind was unable to focus on normal tasks; but it had the ability to picture not only how things worked, but also how things might work. Because of Ed’s limited hearing, he was able to channel his thinking without being distracted by the noise in the world around him. And because he had experienced only 3 months of formal schooling, Ed had never learned that “this won’t work” or “that won’t work.” He tried what he thought might work – and before he died in his 80’s, he patented over 1,000 inventions.

Oh, by the way, you know Ed. His full name was Edison – Thomas Edison. He invented the incandescent electric light bulb, moving pictures, the storage battery, and the mimeograph (for those of you who are old enough to remember what that is).

Now, maybe you never imagined that God created those crucial windows in the life of Thomas Edison. Maybe you’ve always called them “coincidences.” But how else do you explain the fact that a boy who suffered from ADHD, was nearly deaf, and had almost no formal education turned out to be one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known?

It sure sounds like God to me! It sounds like the work of our creative God, who creates windows when no doors are available!

Has God ever done something like that for you? Has God ever created a window when you couldn’t find any doors? Has God ever guided you out of a dark place into the light when you didn’t know which way to turn? Think back over your life… and I’ll bet that you’ll answer “Yes.” I know that I can remember times like that.

I hope that when you leave worship today, you’ll enjoy all the diversity of God’s creation. I hope that you’ll appreciate the creativity that God showed in creating turtles and dogs and butterflies and goldfinches. But most of all, I hope that you’ll have renewed faith that God’s creativity didn’t stop after Day 6 of creation; and renewed hope that God uses it for our benefit all the time! After all, God is still creating! Thanks be to God!