DEVOTION: February 3
One of my friends loves in fresh loaves of sourdough bread and homemade garlic butter with parmesan. She loves in casseroles and hot meals and filling empty bellies around a dinner table that ache for a taste of home.
Another friend loves in bold strokes and bright colors swooshed across large canvases and small papers. She loves in abstracts painted with intention, gifting them unexpectedly to friends simply because they delight in them.
Yet another loves with her prayers straight to the throne room. Your need, no matter how big or small, is immediately taken straight to God in prayer by her on your behalf. She loves on her knees with arms open high.
And another loves with laughs and high kicks. She celebrates her friend’s victories of any size wildly and vehemently. She makes you feel as joyful about a compliment from a stranger as you do about getting a promotion.
The thing all my friends have in common is they create with their love. They create food and art and intercessory prayer and joy. They display love in different ways, but they create out of their love. Creation is simply an outward manifestation of the overflow of their love.
The same goes for God. He loved so much that He created the heavens and the earth and the birds and the trees. And He created us (in His image, no less) so He could love us as we loved what He created. He loves, He creates, we love, what He creates. A fascinating and interwoven cycle of loving and creating and loving and creating.
Creating isn’t just a hobby or a nice thing to do to pass time. It’s an outward expression of an inward love so deep and profound you just can’t help but create. Maybe your love creates hope for people who desperately need it. Or empathy for those hurting alone. Maybe you create peace that helps others sense the presence of God. Or maybe you create notes and lyrics and rhythms out of your love.
When you view your creation as an outward expression of love, it puts purpose into what you’re creating. Love as God did… with a vision and an intention to demonstrate His love.
We all create something, but maybe we’re just not aware we do. If that’s you, spend time journaling the various ways you love others, and watch a thread appear that shows you how you create.
“We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny
he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One.”
(Ephesians 2:10, The Passion Translation)