Why did God tell Adam to name the animals? When you think about it, it’s an odd time to quit creating. He left it to humankind to look for the significance of the things He made, to derive meaning from it, and to join with Him to put the finishing touches on things for which He obviously had a clear vision. What trust that represents—and how much we struggle to replicate it in our own lives and contexts! As we enter Advent and Christmas, it is a perfect time to explore the third of three aspects of human creativity—cultivating, subcreating, and naming—because in understanding naming, we can begin to find the grace in our failures, the courage to meet God in His creative work, and the hopeful expectation that He will meet us in His own created order to make all things new.
Each month during our 2022 “Why We Create” series, we will explore one theme within the overall topic; with teaching in the form of essays, with stories that expand our imaginations to encounter this part of God’s truth, and with a dialogue of subsequent conversations and art. To browse the continuing series, visit its homepage here.
Start here: this month’s introductory essay
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This month’s teaching, stories, and conversation
