We know that God is the Creator. When we say that, we are usually talking about "creating" as thought it's just something He does. But it is much more than that. Creating isn't just something He does; it's something He is. To put it in human terms (forgive me, Lord! Human terms are the best I can do!), He is wired to create. It's like He can't stop. He loves to create because He loves to be known, to share life and enjoy life with what He creates. When He shares life, He is sharing Himself because life isn't just something he gives, life is something He is (John 5:26).
Before making this creation in which we live, I think that He probably indulged in many creations. After all, eternity for Him extends backwards as well as forwards. For Him, time extends in all kinds of ways that we literally cannot imagine. He made angels long before He made us. He made the four living creatures around the throne (Revelation 4:6) long before He made us. Long before us, He made the wondrous beings that Ezekiel described. No one knows what else He made long before us.
My take is that each one of those beings knows Him and experiences Him in ways that we don't and won't. For sure, our experience of Him will overlap with theirs in many ways, but in many other ways our experience of Him will be unique for us, just as theirs is for them.
He wants to indulge Himself in us, share life with us, share the secrets of His heart with us. He wants to have a deeply satisfying involvement with us. The picture that comes to mind is of a grandparent thoroughly enjoying the grandchildren, thinking about them with love and delight, planning trips and get-togethers, birthdays and picnics, maybe digging side by side in the garden, baking and sharing cookies, fishing, talking and laughing, plus a lot of old-fashioned lap time. Of course, for that metaphor to work, you have to imagine ideal grandparents and at least close to ideal grandchildren. If you can at least imagine that, I think you'll get the picture I'm trying to paint.
Because He is by nature and inclination a very creative Creator, I have a hard time buying into the notion that He looks at us and says, "Well, I can't top human beings. I think I'll stop here and never create again." As unique as we are, as unique as the angels, seraphim, cherubim, and other heavenly beings are in their own ways, He will keep creating after us, something different, something new for Him to love and enjoy in ways that are the same and yet somehow different from His ways with us. They won't replace us in His heart, they'll just be different. We didn't replace angels or the others. We're different and unique, we are sons and daughters in ways that angels aren't, but we don't displace angels or the others. Neither will other creations displace us. I can't give you chapter and verse, but that's what I think.
He knew what He was getting into with us. He knows far better than we do that we're an extreme fixer-upper. My guess is that we're a fixer-upper in ways that nothing before has been. He delights in showing off how He can take that which was totally ruined and turn it into something beautiful and pure and altogether lovely, conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-30). I believe He is showing off (not as a person would, but as God) in ways the angels and others haven't seen before. That's why the angels are so eager to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12). I don't think that the "great cloud of witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews 12:1 is limited to the Saints that have gone before. He wants to be known, and showing off His handiwork in and through us allows those other beings to witness things about Him that they haven't previously seen.
For His sake, I want us to be all that He wants, to delight His heart over and over again throughout eternity in all the ways that excited Him when He first dreamed of us.
To balance these thoughts, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that He is not only our creative Creator, He is also our busy Creator, not just playing with His loved ones, but also working. In that way, too, if we are really to be conformed to the image of His Son, our destiny is to partner and work with Him in bringing His dreams to pass. And that also will bring Him great pleasure.
Much love to you!
Before making this creation in which we live, I think that He probably indulged in many creations. After all, eternity for Him extends backwards as well as forwards. For Him, time extends in all kinds of ways that we literally cannot imagine. He made angels long before He made us. He made the four living creatures around the throne (Revelation 4:6) long before He made us. Long before us, He made the wondrous beings that Ezekiel described. No one knows what else He made long before us.
My take is that each one of those beings knows Him and experiences Him in ways that we don't and won't. For sure, our experience of Him will overlap with theirs in many ways, but in many other ways our experience of Him will be unique for us, just as theirs is for them.
He wants to indulge Himself in us, share life with us, share the secrets of His heart with us. He wants to have a deeply satisfying involvement with us. The picture that comes to mind is of a grandparent thoroughly enjoying the grandchildren, thinking about them with love and delight, planning trips and get-togethers, birthdays and picnics, maybe digging side by side in the garden, baking and sharing cookies, fishing, talking and laughing, plus a lot of old-fashioned lap time. Of course, for that metaphor to work, you have to imagine ideal grandparents and at least close to ideal grandchildren. If you can at least imagine that, I think you'll get the picture I'm trying to paint.
Because He is by nature and inclination a very creative Creator, I have a hard time buying into the notion that He looks at us and says, "Well, I can't top human beings. I think I'll stop here and never create again." As unique as we are, as unique as the angels, seraphim, cherubim, and other heavenly beings are in their own ways, He will keep creating after us, something different, something new for Him to love and enjoy in ways that are the same and yet somehow different from His ways with us. They won't replace us in His heart, they'll just be different. We didn't replace angels or the others. We're different and unique, we are sons and daughters in ways that angels aren't, but we don't displace angels or the others. Neither will other creations displace us. I can't give you chapter and verse, but that's what I think.
He knew what He was getting into with us. He knows far better than we do that we're an extreme fixer-upper. My guess is that we're a fixer-upper in ways that nothing before has been. He delights in showing off how He can take that which was totally ruined and turn it into something beautiful and pure and altogether lovely, conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-30). I believe He is showing off (not as a person would, but as God) in ways the angels and others haven't seen before. That's why the angels are so eager to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12). I don't think that the "great cloud of witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews 12:1 is limited to the Saints that have gone before. He wants to be known, and showing off His handiwork in and through us allows those other beings to witness things about Him that they haven't previously seen.
For His sake, I want us to be all that He wants, to delight His heart over and over again throughout eternity in all the ways that excited Him when He first dreamed of us.
To balance these thoughts, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that He is not only our creative Creator, He is also our busy Creator, not just playing with His loved ones, but also working. In that way, too, if we are really to be conformed to the image of His Son, our destiny is to partner and work with Him in bringing His dreams to pass. And that also will bring Him great pleasure.
Much love to you!
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