Last Sunday, I had the privilege of being the guest speaker at a special church service for their Chat and Choose group. Many beautiful arts and craft items were displayed. I was in awe of the imagination, the skilled hands that had created so much beauty from large patch-work quilts to the fine tatting and other numerous items.
It has been a very busy time in the Hawkins family and I had found it difficult to not only make the time to prepare but also to decide what message the Lord wanted me to share. To start with, while I enjoy speaking appointments to women and writers’ groups I was rather intimidated to be the preacher delivering the sermon. After all, my husband is the minister! But our roles were to be reversed that day.
As always after prayer and reading the scriptures, the brain began to churn. For some reason I could not get past the thought of God the Master Craftsman, the Creator who looked at all He had made and thought it was “good.” How many times in the past had I read and studied those first chapter of Genesis? This time the thought of God’s valuation of all He had created as “good” really struck home. I looked again and again at that verse twenty-seven: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” And then later, in that last verse thirty-one of chapter one we are told, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”
But I thought of Adam’s sad rebellion that brought death and destruction to The Creator’s wonderful, amazing efforts. How would those hard-working craft members feel if their display at church was destroyed? How would I feel if I saw my creative writing work, my books ruined, destroyed? How would I feel if someone thought so little of all my hard work that I think of as “good” they turned away from me, even hated me? 
And although that “image” of God in humankind is now distorted, is part of our desire to “create” and love beauty still from our Creator? He loves us so much He is still reaching out to those who have turned away from Him, rebelled. I am so very, very thankful our God is still in the “Creating Business!” that He loves us still, was prepared to let His Son suffer what should be our punishment so we can enjoy intimacy with Him again.
Let us never forget the love behind the truth of 2Corinthians5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
And the words of an old Sunday School days hymn written by another writer many, many years ago has been resounding through my head today.
I am so glad that our Father in heavenTells of His love in the book He has given.
Wonderful things in the Bible I see
This is the dearest that Jesus loves me.
I am so glad that Jesus loves me!
