A Greater Appreciation for Beauty and Creativity

In reading ‘Surprised by Hope’ by N. T. Wright, I have come to have a greater appreciation for all the creative minds in this world. All too often I think we as a society can place more value on scientific endeavour and almost look down upon those who choose to pursue creativity not only as a side hobby, but as a passion and career path. It can be seen as a dead end. ‘ok, so you are going to study art… then what are you going to do with your life?’ 

As the church, our hope is in Christ, and in his return and restoration of this broken world to what it was meant to be. The new creation that is ahead of us. Wright claims that not only is this new creation coming in the future, but the earth as we know it is already being renewed. 

“… creation is to be redeemed; that is, space is to be redeemed, time is to be redeemed, and matter is to be redeemed. God said ‘very good’ over his space-time-and-matter creation, and though the redeeming of this world from its present corruption and decay will mean transformations we cannot imagine, the one thing we can be sure of is that this redeeming of creation will not mean that God will say, of space, time and matter, ‘oh, well, nice try, good while it lasted but obviously gone bad, so let’s drop it and go for a nonspatiotemporal, nonmaterial world instead.’”

If this is true and the place we live today is to carry on in some form, that means that what we do here and now still matters. This can be seen throughout the bible as we are called to care for creation (Gen 2:15), to work for justice (Micah 6:8, Prov 31:8-9), and to share the good news of Christ (Acts 1:8). Our mission is not only to tell about Jesus and our future hope with words, but it is to show this through our actions. 

Although things will not be complete until the final day when Christ returns and restores all to his perfect plan, his resurrection tells us that death is defeated and it points us in the direction to work in whatever way we can towards that day, bringing justice, beauty and the good news to the world in the present. 

I loved the metaphor given by Wright of an engagement ring. It is beautiful in and of itself, yet it is even more beautiful because of what it promises, the future joy and love to be experienced between man and wife. In a similar way, our actions as Christians are to point forwards to the future promised. As we seek justice for the oppressed, we cannot achieve this in all its fullness, however we are pointing towards the future when our Lord judges with fairness and justice. 

In terms of creativity and beauty, our God-given ability to create reflects his creativity and beauty. If we are creative beings, and we ourselves are created (Isaiah 45:12), then how much more creative must God be?! We are not greater than our maker, who is infinitely greater than we can even begin to imagine - Isaiah 45:12 “Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute wth the one who shapes it, saying, ‘stop, you’re doing it wrong!’” 

When we see a beautiful image, an extraordinary piece of art and marvel at it, this is only a glimpse of what is to come. It is only the engagement ring pointing towards the promise of marriage. 

“Art at its best draws attention not only to the way things are but also to the way things will be, when the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. That remains a surprising hope, and perhaps it will be the artists who are best at conveying both the hope and the surprise.” - N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope. 

Art is beautiful, just as creation is beautiful. I am so excited by the fact that even as we look at the grandeur of mountains and gorges, how huge and majestic they appear, this is only pointing towards our God. If he can create all of that, craft the stars, the planets, the entire universe, then what a glorious hope we have to look forward to! 

We should appreciate artists and creative minds more than we do. I would encourage anyone to share the talents they have with others around them, whether that is painting, music, film, theatre. We are called to bring glory to God in everything we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).