The relationship between a creator and a creationHow do you generally feel about the things you create? If you make a peanut-butter sandwich for someone, and that person puts it on the ground and steps on it, how do you feel? You see, we have a continuing interest in what we create. And that's characteristic of all forms of creation. Even if it is a botched job, we have a continuing interest in it, which is why we may even feel ashamed of it. We are not simply indifferent to it. There is always a sustained relationship between creator and creation, whether it is you and the peanut-butter sandwich or God and his world. Because in the process of creation, we impart the substance of ourselves into what we create. Perhaps a peanut-butter sandwich doesn't call for much, but after all you did invest your choice, thought, and energy into making that sandwich. And that's why you are not indifferent about what happens to it. What happens to that sandwich genuinely matters to you. Even if you were to say, "Well, I'm silly to let it matter!" it still matters. From The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus. Copyright © 2015 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
No comments:
Post a Comment