Rhonda Adamson Writes!!!

John 1:3 (NIV) "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

     So far in John we've seen these concepts: The Word's eternality (In the beginning was the Word), equality (and the Word was with God) and deity (and the Word was God). Then, verse two emphazises these ideas by repeating, "He was with God in the beginning."

Verse three discusses one of my favorite aspects of life: creativity! Place me anywhere where there is an artistic endeavor, and there you'll find a happy woman.  A symphony! A God-honoring movie! A well written, thought laden book! An oil, acrylic or water color painting! These are things that delight me.  Well, guess what? The humanities also delight God.  He is the original Creator, the first Creator.  And all things created by humans point to our perfectly Creative God. 

The Complete Biblical Library, with co-editors Ralph W. Harris, MA, Stanley Horton, ThD, and Gayle Garrity Seaver, JD, Springfield, MO says, "Man can only rearrange what is already there.  God alone can create."

It is possible to spend hours researching "Creation Stories" from various people groups.  Here are a few websites, containing ideas that often run contrary to what Genesis chapter one in the Bible declares:

http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgane/creation/csbutterfly.html This website conveniently gives access to creation stories from around the world. I printed off Austrailia's myth about the birth of butterflies, a Middle Eastern myth of Gilgamesh, a myth from New Zealand, and an Aztec Creation story.

From http://the-office.com/bedtime-story/apache-creation.htm came an Apache story that tries to explain how the world was created.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/mmp/mmp5.htm reveals ancient Peru's Incan ideas about creation.

After reading about all these mythical gods and their actions, it refreshed me to go back to the simple, logical truth revealed in Genesis 1:1-2:3. 

Here are two interesting websites that talk about the legend of the dogwood tree.  One is in poetic form and has a picture (Yeah! Creativity!); and the other is text only:

http://www.greatwoodcarvings.com/dogwood_legend.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/trees/dogwood.html

I believe it was George Washington Carver who invented peanut butter.  He wanted a cheap and nutritious food source.  So he asked God to reveal to him the secrets of the peanut.  Guess what God did? God showed George how to manufacture many products, including peanut butter, from the tiny peanut. 

Now, while this post may seem random and full of so many disparate thoughts, I can assure you that God's creativity reflects a perectly ordered thought cycle.  So, let's go back to the text book that makes perfect sense of the universe and at the same time reveals the creative genius of our Creator. "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."