The Book of Genesis begins with a sweeping picture: God, in His grandeur, breathes life into the universe. Mountains and hills are formed, seas are poured out, skies are fixed in place, and all of it is filled with swarms of life. It’s into this creative symphony that God forms human life from the dirt - Adam and Eve, the first humans we meet in the Bible. Genesis records God giving these people a surprising command: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15 NRSV).
This command is interesting because there’s a subtle implication behind it - the garden requires tilling and keeping. In other words, the world that God made for man and woman is beautiful, majestic, perfect even, yet also raw and wild. The garden is good, certainly, but it hasn’t been brought to its fullest expression. It requires cultivation - for people to bring something out of it.
Later, when Adam and Eve rebel and fall to the temptation of the serpent, God tells Adam that his work will be cursed, that he will have to toil painfully to get anything from the ground. He doesn’t say that his work is bad. The command to cultivate and create came before the curse, not after. What does this mean for those of us who consider ourselves to be “creatives?”
In his book Garden City, pastor and theologian John Mark Comer paints a picture of salvation history that feels a little bit different than what many of us are used to hearing. He begins with the raw material of Eden and the command to cultivate and finishes the book by describing the Heavenly City in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Comer notes that there are several similarities between Eden and the Heavenly City: both feature a river of life, a tree of life, precious stones and gold, and as being on top of a sacred mountain.
In Comer’s reading, it would seem that the Heavenly City is the Garden of Eden in its cultivated state - the fulfillment of God’s command to till and keep the earth. What matters for creatives is the work that occurs in between.
It may be difficult, yes, even cursed, but it is more significant than many of us give this work credit for. It can be easy to fall into the belief that creative work (or any work for that matter) doesn’t have anything to do with our spiritual lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. If we take this reading of Scripture to be true, then our creativity is in fact a fulfillment of one of God’s first commands to the human race.
How do we explore and foster this creativity as an act of worship and spiritual discipline? It starts by understanding that the process of work is just as important to God as the outcome. We live in a society that for centuries has prioritized efficiency, results, and productivity, a philosophy most perfectly embodied in generative AI tools. Doing things faster or focussing on results isn’t inherently bad per se, but we strip the work of its valuable creative potential when we forget the importance of doing something slowly and intentionally for its own sake.
If you want to develop your creativity as a spiritual practice, start by tending to the things you already do every day and focusing on the process, not just the result. All of us have to do creative things on a daily basis, from making meals to organizing files on a computer. If we can learn to slow down and seek God in the work, doing every task with an awareness of Him and a desire to imitate Him as you shape His creation, we will find creativity to be a space for encounter with God.
You may feel that all you’re doing is painting a picture or writing a song for your relaxation, making a coffee for a cranky customer, or teaching your child to sound out words when in fact you are cultivating and tilling the raw material of the world God created in anticipation of the Heavenly City. You are participating in the restoration of the world to Christ. The work of creativity is in a sense “worship” because through it we sacrifice our time, talent, and effort to God so that He might bring from it something beautiful that glorifies Him.
I often experience God’s presence in my creative work through delight. Paying attention to the work I am doing, seeking to be as excellent in my writing or event planning or emailing as God was when He made the seas and the skies brings me to a sense of wonder, awe, and joy. On the days when things go well, I see Him when I stop and look at the work of my hands and remind myself that it is very good.
You don’t have to be a professional in full-time ministry to do work that brings about the Kingdom of God. All of our little contributions in creative works are participation in the work of God to redeem and save the world. Rest assured that no matter how much delight you receive from making something beautiful, God delights in your work even more.
