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FORGIVENESS STILL FOLLOWS FAILURE
By Erwin Bourne—August 14, 2002
Constructing something engages only the hands.
Creating something engages the heart and the soul. I
produced a collector’s-item book entitled HEART AND
SOUL. The printer produced the book with his hands
and his equipment. I created the 28 distinctive
musicals that fill the pages along with the familiar
tunes. No one had ever before witnessed my creation—I
walked through the jungle alone until I penned the
verses. I was the creator. Narrating the piece in
public brought tears to many eyes.
Now imagine God’s creativity. Of all we don’t know
about the creation, there is one thing we do know—he
did it with a smile. Max Lucado says, “He must’ve had
a blast. Painting the stripes on the zebra, hanging
the stars in the sky, putting the gold in the sunset.
What creativity! Stretching the neck of the giraffe,
putting the flutter in the mockingbird’s wings,
planting the giggle in the hyena.
“What a time he had. Like a whistling carpenter in
his workshop, he loved every bit of it. He poured
himself into the work. So intent was his creativity
that he took a day off at the end of the week just to
rest.
“And then, as a finale to a brilliant performance, he
made man. With his typical creative flair, he began
with a useless mound of dirt and ended up with an
invaluable species called a human. A human who had
the unique honor to bear the stamp, ‘In His Image.’ ”
The Divine Artist has yet to unveil his greatest
creation. As the story unfolds, a devil of a snake
feeds man a line and an apple, and gullible Adam
swallows them both. This one act of rebellion sets in
motion a dramatic and erratic courtship between God
and man. Though the characters and scenes change, the
scenario repeats itself endlessly.
God, still the compassionate Creator, woos his
creation. Man, the creation, alternately reaches out
in repentance and runs in rebellion. It is within
this simple script that God’s creativity flourishes.
If you thought he was imaginative with the sea and the
stars, just wait until you see what he does to get his
creation to listen to him.
:
For example
A ninety-year-old woman gets pregnant.
A woman turns to salt.
A flood blankets the earth.
A bush burns (but doesn’t burn up!)
The Red Sea splits in two.
The walls of Jericho fall.
The sky rains fire.
A donkey speaks.
Talk about special effects! But these acts, be they
ever ingenious, still couldn’t compare with what was
to come. Nearing the climax of the story, God,
motivated by love and directed by divinity, surprised
everyone. He became a man. In an untouchable
mystery, he disguised himself as a carpenter and lived
in a dusty Judean village. Determined to prove his
love for his creation, he walked incognito through his
own world.
But as beautiful as this act of incarnation was, it
was not the zenith. Like a master painter God
reserved his masterpiece until the end. All the
earlier acts of love had been leading to this one.
The angels hushed and the heavens paused to witness
the finale. God unveils the canvas and the ultimate
act of creative compassion is revealed. God on a
cross.
The Creator is being sacrificed for the creation. God
convinces man once and for all that forgiveness still
follows failure. All that the master painter needed
to do was done and was done in splendor. His creation
could now come home. “It is finished.” And the great
Creator went home. (He’s not resting though. Word
has it that his tireless hands are preparing a city so
glorious that even the angels get goosebumps upon
seeing it. Considering what he has done so far, that
is one creation I plan to see.)
From Max Lucado’s NO WONDER THEY CALL HIM THE SAVIOR
Edited by Erwin Bourne
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