A friend of mine challenged me to adopt—perhaps embrace—a Transcendent Pursuit for the coming year, something life changing, something I can bring to the world to make a difference.
Then I re-read the first chapter of Genesis. It felt like I was reading it for the first time, and I felt the nudge of God.
The first thing I noticed was the creative artistry of God. The opening verses do not focus on God’s unparalleled power. Instead they reveal—and almost revel in—the beauty. After each creative act God doesn’t say, “That was powerful;” he says, 
“This is beautiful” (a better translation than what we are used to).
Next I noticed that God sees potential where no one else ever could. God hovers over and looks into the chaos and void; he takes the raw materials of darkness and depth, and he creates light, and it is beautiful. As are the oceans and fields and skies.
After observation and creation, God gives. He gives this unparalleled treasure of creation to man. The opening chapter of the Bible surges with swarming fish, teaming land animals, luscious vegetation, and a sky pregnant with stars.
And God turns to man and says, “It’s yours. Take it. Care for it. Love it.”
The opening of the Bible reveals a completely different God than any man has ever created. The opening of the Bible reveals God as an artist, seeing beauty, creating incomparable art, and giving it away. It is a radical image of God.
I long to live like that artist
Seeing God as the creator—not merely powerful but a creator of beauty—moved me. It makes me want to be more like him in a selfless giving of light, life, and joy. And then I read the next few verses.
God makes man in his own image. God revels (imagine a reveling God!) in this description of human design: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … God created man in his image … in his own image he made him” (Gen. 1:26-27).
It is almost as if God needed an editor to say, “Uh, God, you are being redundant.” But God wasn’t writing useless repetition. He was being emphatic. He wanted us to know—he needed us to know—that his image is the blueprint of our design.
God’s first act is to make us his masterpiece—his literal artistic crown of creation—and his second act is to make us artists as well. He animates his masterpiece, breathing into us a creative force to see beauty, create incomparable art, and give it away.
When he puts us in the Garden of Eden—asking us to dig the earth, rule creation, and name the animals—God is inviting us to join with him as creative comrades. He enters into partnership with us as we artistically cultivate and nurture this world.
What is the church meant to be?
When God gave his creation to mankind, he said, “Subdue it and have dominion.” But these words do not mean to invade earth like a conquering king—God spoke these words before the fall. They don’t mean subjection, they mean cultivation.
The church—God’s people on earth—are meant to be gardeners, maybe a guild of gardeners. We are here to create the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and nurture. To create an environment of peace and life, joy and light, and hope.
How do we cultivate each other? We begin to see the unseen. We learn to spot beauty in each other. We become gardening treasure hunters; recognizing the raw materials of gifts and passion in each other and speaking it into life: “I see this in you; it is beautiful.”
We are called to be an Army of Artists or Guerilla Gardeners. We win the world through the cultivation of a Garden. The church on earth is that collection of artistic gardeners who are cultivating the Garden of Eden, bringing light and beauty.
The Christian life is joy, light, and creation in comradeship with the creator of all.
Don’t confuse the Garden shed with the Garden
Religious groups can frustrate me. I get sick of the same weekly board (or perhaps bored) meeting, or the memo to write, or the program to manage. I say to myself (and sometimes to my wife), “This can’t be God’s plan for his people! There has to be more!”
This week I realized my problem: I’ve been confusing the garden shed with the garden.
God’s people—this guerilla band of gardeners—are here on earth to cultivate His garden. But I’ve been tripping over the spades, hoes, pickaxes, and rakes. They are just tools. They are used to create the garden, but they aren’t the garden.
If my primary experience of God’s people is frustration, it might be time to let go of a gardening tool—that spade of board membership or that pickaxe of the program I manage. All our programs, plans and meetings are simply tools to cultivate the garden.
Sometimes I feel we cannot see the garden for the shed. When the tools are creating blisters, it’s time to lay them down. It’s the garden we are creating, not a tool shed.
Creation and re-creation
When Christ came into the world, scripture says of him that “a bruised reed he will not break … [and yet] he will faithfully bring forth justice” (Is. 42:3).
Christ came to earth as the ultimate guerilla gardener; he brought justice not through violent invasion but through violent gardening, through aggressive art.
After the fall of man—after we rebelled against his creative design—God again hovered over the dark void of the earth and saw what we could be if brought back to life. By sending his son, he again proclaimed, “Let there be light,” and it was beautiful.
I long to live my life like that Artist.
Sam
What My Train Set Taught Me About Transcendence
Sam, I really loved this and have wrestled with this so much in my life. In Julia Cameron’s book she commented ” Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.” I think a sign of a healthy Godly society is one that cannot help but be creative. Man is happiest going to the moon, building great canal’s, writing new music, and we feel so deeply when we identify with creative energy.
This is also where we feel our biggest attacks on our lives.
Hi Chris,
I agree with you, mankind is happiest being creative.
I once spoke with a doctor. He hated his job. He said he once loved it; he took the raw materials of immune systems, healthy lifestyle, medical advances, and illness … and he created art (health). He was an artist.
But now he was a doctor just for the money, and he hated his job.
The lesson–for me–is to learn to live as an artist in whatever activity I’m engaged. That is, let’s not do the work primarily for money or fame or reputation; let’s do the work as an artist. Let’s take the raw materials of whatever we are working with, and let’s make something beautiful.
Thanks,
Sam
It is amazing to me how the act of “doing church” can actually move people away from God’s design of and for each individual person. To me, learning to Walk with God has lifted some of the fog of “doing vs being”. We have been given a great gift in the garden of life, along with the people in it. I would agree with you Sam, if your getting blisters, (frustration) with the doing of things, its time to stop and re-evaluate our personal walk. Thanks for your encouragement to “look under the hood of my life”. Keep at it my friend. Lyle R.
Hi Lyle,
Yes, when our “doing” is make us feel good about ourselves, when our doing is to make us “be” then we are in deep trouble.
If we can come to live in the “being,” the being of who God made us (guerrilla gardeners, an army of artists), then we can safely DO. The key is to BE before we DO.
God wants us to DO; he made a garden for us to creatively cultivate. But first we have to accept the BEING, being made in God’s image.
This reminds me of Frank Sinatra, Do-be-do-be-do. Except we have to reverse it: Be-do-Be-do-Be.
Hmmm. Maybe my gift is not song lyrics.
Sam
Beautiful Sam!
Sam,
I agree with you that we often confuse the garden shed and the garden but I often wonder how it is possible to grow the garden without the proper tools in the shed. Like you said, these are just the tools to get the garden growing but these tools do make it easier to cultivate the garden and therefore a necessary part of the process.
I currently serve on the Board at our church and I often feel like I would rather be out there with people then stuck in a meeting… however I realize there are necessary parts to a board meeting in propelling the vision of the church.
Perhaps I am wrestling with my gifts and where I need to be to bring artistry to Gods people and maybe it is not in the meetings, yet these seem to be necessary? I wish I had the answer. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Matt
Hi Matt,
You ask a really great question. Thanks for thinking this through.
I agree that tools are good. It would be hard to garden without them (imagine tilling an acre of garden with your fingernails!).
The issue is to remember our goal: our goal is to create, cultivate, and nurture a garden. The church is meant to be a place where we can come as fellow artists and bring what God has given us.
I think it is a place where we learn to spot beauty in each other, as in, “Scott, when you speak, it encourages, it brings life! Spotting and bringing to life that beauty.
We use the tools to create the environment.
But … it is very easy for our focus to shift from the garden to the tools. It’s very easy to say the church is meetings and tithing and programs. No, those are spades and hoes and pickaxes. They are great tools, but they aren’t the church.
I think this simply means an attention to our hearts; are we looking at the garden or are we building a display of our tools? I think we often begin in the spirit and end in the flesh.
It just requires self-reflection, honesty, and talking with friends (which is what it’s all about!).
Love your question. thanks.
Sam
…..he needed us to know—that his image is the blueprint of our design. This is a phrase that is used often in Francois du Toit’s partial paraphrase of the new testament, the Mirror Translation. You need to spend some time in it. It is a garden of delights. You will love it!
….recognizing the raw materials of gifts and passion in each other and speaking it into life: “I see this in you; it is beautiful.” this is soooo important, but we do not have as much trouble seeing the gifts in others…… it is recognizing it in ourselves, walking in our gifts before others on a daily basis that is the battle. When the body starts to do that, Is 60:1 will be fulfilled. Arise, shine for the light has come and the glory of the Lord as risen upon YOU! ME! That is why we thank you for walking in your gift before us. You are creating the inspiration in us, to do the same.
Hi Fred,
YES, “when the body starts to do that…”
I think the body can compel through wooing. We become that Garden, we sow seeds of joy and delight, and the world will be beating down our doors.
Instead we go to garden shows and display our hoes and pickaxes.
Sam
Thanks for this. Lots to absorb.
Thanks, Sam. I long to be an artist with my words, creating something beautiful and striking with language. So I really identify with you here. Thanks for sharing your heart.
Hi Coach,
I know you long for this. I love that heart in you.
So, hey, let’s go do it. Let’s see, let’s speak it into creation, let’s bless it (you are beautiful) and let’s give it away.
I will if you do.
Sam
I plan to. Thanks! And I will be posting your blog on Monday!
Great article Sam
Hi Keith,
Thanks for your saying so.
And everyone else, Keith is the real thing, a real artist. He composes music. When the six string guitar wasn’t enough, he designed and created a 27 string guitar on which he composes music. Here is his site: http://keithmedleymusic.com/
And here is a YouTube video of him playing his 27 string guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5-vKuXT8s
This is art, seeing what no one else could see (a 27 string guitar), and creating it. Then blessing us.
Sam
It’s really surprising to think of God ENJOYING stuff- enjoying creating, enjoying people, enjoying the fact that there’s so much awesome stuff in the world. ^_^ That totally challenges how I think of God.
(And for some reason, this reminds me of my reaction to Philippians 1:8 “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Wow, Jesus is affectionate?)
Hi Perfect Number,
I love that verse from Philippians. Thanks for pointing it out.
Someday I’m going to write a blog on the Heresy of Bible Translations. The original Hebrew and Greek are much more passionate and hot. God is portrayed much warmer. Our translations make him cold, aloof, distant. Maybe clinical.
Thanks,
Sam
Same,
“Guerilla Gardeners” and “violent gardening,” I love it!
Timm
Hi Timm,
I tried a few attempts and battling creativity, but those two were my favorite. Let’s see, I thought of Singing Soldiers, an Army of Artists, Marine Musicians, Daredevil Dancers, and … I forget.
I like the image of mixing the artist with the warrior.
Sam
Ah! I love it. And it is beautiful. Sharing with a friend with whom I was having an email conversation with just today about such things. Thank you, Sam.
Hi Robin,
Thanks! I’m looking forward to reading that book that I know is in you. A work of art.
Sam
What’s leaping out at me is the idea of God bursting with a love that creates everything from his heart and then creating beings able to “get” him—that he can share it all with.
I think I’ve heard somewhere that becoming aware of God and loving him via the inspiration of nature is the most primitive stage of worship, but I’ve arrived at it rather late in life. Frankly, it doesn’t strike me as primitive at all. The sunset today had those Maxfield Parrish blues and golds in it, and I was just flooded with joy. And it wasn’t just mine!
Google “Ecstasy” by Maxfield Parrish. That pretty much captures it. I also found a photo by a guy that had the same experience: Google “Maxfield Parrish Sky.”
Hi Martha,
Maybe instead of calling it the most “primitive” we should call it the most “visceral.” I’m learning late in life as well. (Which means you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.)
Hey, I’ve gotta run and google those suggestions.
So, then, the other thing that leaps out at me is an extension of the first—the Divine Artist as Lavish Giver. So different from the self-absorbed “artiste”!
The idea of giving one’s creative endeavor away for the pleasure of all reminded me of the “Why Cheap Art? Manifesto.” If I knew how to link stuff in these comments, I’d help you out, but you’ll just have to google that, too!
Here is the “text” of the manifesto, and below that is a link to the creative art:
http://s23.org/wiki/Cheap_Art_Manifesto
Sam:
Your blog takes me back to my childhood and working in the garden. The preparation time in the spring – the strong touch required to work the ground after the winter months, the smells of the mushroom manure, feeling the warmth of the sun on my back with each shovel full of earth I turned over. The timing of when to plant which vegetables based on the phase of the moon. The gentle touch required to plant the seeds, water and weed the garden as the young plants began to grow. And the differences between the flower gardens and the vegetable garden.
As I sit in front of my iPad pondering the ‘garden’, I’m challenged to get back in touch with something more ‘organic’, something more in touch with the phases and cycles and the movement of creation as I consider a transcendent pursuit for 2013.
Thank you my friend
Hi Gerry,
Your response is … well, beautiful. Your response is an organic planting of an idea and a hope.
Thank you