The Creative Discipline of God

Funny how life's lessons intertwine. Reading in "A Step Further" by Joni, I came across the following quote:

As humans we are most exacting and demanding on the people and things we care for and love the most. As an artist, sketches I care little about I just leave alone. But when I get excited about a drawing, it gets "bruised and battered" with erasures and revisions. It seems that God deals with us that way. (p64)

Ditto. I spend ages on the images, animations and poems that mean most to me. Tweaking, fine-tuning, it goes on and on. And even "finished" is a step on a journey rather than perfection. I'm always dreaming of ways to improve them, seeking to "draw them out" more and more. As for God's creative work in us, this offers something of a balance to previous posts about the Painful and Silent discipline of God ...

"For you are God's poetry (or "craftmanship"), created in Christ Jesus to do good works ..." (Eph 2:10)

Who would have thought that God's discipline was an act of divine creativity? God is so painstaking with us ...

Translational Notes

"Poetry" translates "poiema" in Greek, and its root verb is "poieo",  "to do or make".

Broadly meaning "a creation, a work, something that is made", and in the plural, usually means God's work in creation, and his deeds and works. It can also acquire the much narrower sense of "poem" but apparently not in the New Testament. Care is needed not to import a modern, Romantic understanding of "poem" onto a usage 18 centuries earlier, but we can legitimately translate as "created works", or "handiwork", or "workmanship", or "craftmanship".

However, since the painstakingness of God's creativity is abundantly clear from elsewhere in the Bible, I have taken the liberty of using this word in the translation here.

Comments

[Caroline]

What a powerful image, Richard. I shall take the image of God 'working on me' because He's excited with me with me for the next few days.