Being Re-Created by the Artist
Many of us will be familiar with the idea that our creativity (and that of our directees) is one of the primary ways that we (they) bear God’s image. Our creativity might be expressed through paints and brushes, sounds and instruments, food, movement, bricks, wood, words, spreadsheets, solutions to problems or countless other media… It might be part of our day-to-day or something we only engage in on a sporadic basis… But whatever it may “look like” to an observer, our creativity is an important way that we reflect our Creator. In fact, I suspect that as beings made in the likeness of the One who made all, we can’t help but be creative… perhaps often without realising it. So, here’s a starter question:
Reflection: How well do you know your own creativity – its rhythms and patterns, its media and expressions, its needs and desires?
What about your directees – what do you know of their creativity?
But why do we need to notice our creativity, especially those of us who aren’t professional artists? In Art + Faith, Makoto Fujimura talks about different ways of knowing, including the knowing received through creating. He says,
“I have come to believe that unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives and God’s Creation. Because the God of the Bible is fundamentally and exclusively THE Creator… God cannot be known by sitting in a classroom, or even in a church taking in information about God... The act of Making can lead us to coming to know THE Creator personally…” (Makoto Fujimura, Art + Faith, Yale University Press, p.7)
How amazing to realise that our creating can reveal more of our Creator to us – and to others. The writer’s passion for exactly the right word, the painter’s quest for an elusive colour, the potter’s tender determination with a lump of difficult clay – these all show us something more of what God is like. For me, the joy I experience in the process of creativity – even more than the product – reminds me that God delights in being “on the way” with me… and the way my crewel work embroidery seems to subsume all my wrong stitches offers a deep shalom to my soul’s painful awareness of the many mistakes I make. Fujimura’s illuminating insight can, I believe, broaden beyond creativity too, and provides a rich avenue for us to explore in direction.
Reflection: Why not take a moment to consider another of the ways that you image your Maker and what it shows you about Him or how you know more of Him through it.
Which of your directees might find grace in reflecting on this with you for themselves?
There’s more.
As well as deepening our knowledge of God in a personal and experiential way, and unavoidably interconnected with it, our creativity can be a way God disciples us.
From moments of transformational encounter as we engage in a creative practice unfamiliar to us, to the development of resilience as we hone a craft, God is shaping us through our creativity. I have often been surprised at where a poem I am writing has taken itself and how He speaks to or sustains me through that; I have known Him patiently hammering away at my pride and comparison on many occasions thanks to the strong and supportive anvil of creative community. That I am not who I used to be is, in part, because the Creator has been re-creating me through my creativity. That I am not yet who He intends me to be becomes an opportunity to continue the breathtaking and intimate adventure of creative relationship – the potter’s gentle grasp of the clay, the painter’s eyes on the canvas, the choreographer’s voice guiding and correcting and encouraging each dancer, the flautist’s breath ebbing and flowing through the instrument it fills… Creativity offers so many pictures that elucidate and speak into processes of transformation.
Reflection: As you consider how God is shaping, forming, and re-creating you in this season, which creator-creature (or artist-artwork) relationship feels like an apt expression of what you are experiencing?
How does that picture inform your practice of direction?
Creativity, then, is far more than paid employment or pure enjoyment, far more than tools and templates, far more than mechanics and masterpieces. Creativity is an invitation from the Creator to know Him in a way that connects with and transforms us at the deepest level of being. Creativity is His re-creating gift to us.
Reflection: How do you sense God inviting you to step into knowing Him through creativity?
What desires and fears do you notice surfacing about His re-creating of you?
Imagine one (or more) of your directees as an artwork in progress… How does the Artist interact with them?
Cath Butler
Cath Butler enjoys working as a peripatetic music tutor, nurturing her own and others’ creativity, serving as Musical Director for a local Church of Ireland congregation, and offering Spiritual Direction. As a member of the United Adoration UK Team, she recently contributed to and co-edited A Path Of Beauty - An Artist’s Devotional; she also writes for Scripture Union’s Daily Bread, and finds endless joy in the adventure of song writing. Her primary “love languages” are the clarinet, pancakes, reading, and journaling. Based in the beautiful coastal city of Bangor, Co. Down, you will often find her walking by the waves.
She is running an event for Members “Remade in the Making: A creative workshop” on Saturday 25 April 2026 at 10:00 12:00. You can sign up here.
We have a copy of Cath’s book A Path Of Beauty - An Artist’s Devotional to give away. Leave a comment below letting us know what is your favourite way to use creativity with your directees and we will pick a winner on 27th April!