Wisdom Creates
… creativity that illustrates the presence of wisdom…
Proverbs 8:29-31 When He set for the sea its boundary; So that the water would not transgress His command; When He marked out the foundations of the earth; Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of men.
Wisdom and creativity are related subjects in the Bible. In fact, creativity is a manifestation of wisdom in the context of excellence and integrity. Wisdom is personified in Proverbs 8, and is the companion of God at the creation of all things. Therefore wisdom and creativity must not be separated in the mind of the believer. They are the essential tools needed to complete our assignment of being an effective witness to the lost. It is wisdom that makes our role in this world desirable to them. While most Christians have a value for wisdom, most do not have an equal value for the role of creativity in their God-given responsibilities. Yet it is creativity that illustrates the presence of wisdom: “Wisdom is vindicated by all her children” (Luke 7:35 NASB)
The six days of creation saw the most wonderful display of wisdom and art imaginable. As God spoke, the worlds were made. Light and beauty, sound and color, all flowed together seamlessly as wisdom set the boundaries for creation itself. Solomon, the man known for supernatural wisdom, discusses the co-laboring effect that wisdom had on that day in Proverbs 8 (see above).
Wisdom is given an artisan title of “master workman.” Note the even more powerful phrases; “rejoicing always before Him,” “rejoicing in the world,” and “my delight in the sons of men.” Wisdom is not stoic as it is so often pictured. It’s even more than happy; it is celebratory in nature and finds pleasure in the act of creation. But its greatest delight is in us! It has found perfect companionship with humanity. We were born to partner with wisdom-to live in it and display it through creative expression.
Day 259 of A Life of Miracles: A 365-day guide to prayer and miracles Published by Destiny Image
Personal Commentary:
I was reading through Walter Brueggemann’s “The Prophetic Imagination” and he talks about how the job of the prophet is to inspire hope in the community because the culture that is not of God is, by nature, without hope. Because of that, the prophet needs to have an incredibly creative imagination in order to evoke the symbols and language needed to inspire hope.
I think it’s cool the way this ties wisdom into that, because in another book about the prophets by Abraham Heschel, he talks about praying for wonder rather than wisdom because wisdom takes the mystery out of things. Brueggemann goes on to criticize Solomon’s empire because it conformed to the rest of the world, losing the culture of God. And Solomon is generally who you think of when you think of wisdom. I struggled with this because wisdom is important to me. But I think this article gives me a bigger understanding of God’s wisdom, that it is not the opposite of wonder, but rather a partner to it.
