Creation

"The agent of redemption is also the agent of creation." Often times I struggle with the idea of the Trinity. One God of three equal pieces working in communion together. Regardless of my inability to envision the infinite since I am a finite being, I think Plantinga makes a great point. I tend to encapsulate each figure in the Trinity to a specific area. However, this is clearly not the case. It is a central idea to know that Jesus Christ always was and always will be. He was not "made" by God to redeem the world. He was there in the beginning of time, bringing the world into existence--not a part of God that was made to forgive us of our sins. I do not mean to say that Jesus did not work as an agent of renewal, he is the reason for our salvation. I just mean to say that he is also more than that.

Another concept that I have often struggled with is why God created the world. Certainly he made it out of his infinite love, but he is an all powerful lord of the universe, creatures such as ourselves seem superfluous to Him. And in reality, we really are superfluous. As Plantinga said, "nothing internal or external to God compelled him to create." We were not a necessity. On the other hand we are not a random accident. We are not the product of an act of carelessness. We seem to be caught in two worlds, not necessary for God but not an unintentional accident. Plantinga goes on to say that "creation is an act that was fitting for God."This is an interesting idea to me. It seems difficult for me to say that we can label God and say what is fitting for Him. But certainly we do know some things about Him. God has revealed himself to us in general and special revelations. God has given us a basic understanding of Himself through these revelations. What I do know about God in my limited understanding is that he is a God of immense love. The creation process is one of "imaginative love." I love the quote from G.K. Chesterton, "the whole difference between construction and creation is...that a ting constructed can only be loved after is is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists." At first I did not understand this quote, and then I thought of an example: you construct a house. You draw up blueprints and you build the house, but during this process you don't truly love the house. You can love the idea of the house but only once it is created and it becomes a home can you feel any real affection towards it. On the other hand, you create a child. Being a man and never experiencing childbirth I am no expert, but I have to speculate from the moment that you know you have that piece of life in you, you love your child. It is a created part of you that you are intrinsically attached to in a way that I struggle to find words for. This is the image that I get when I think of God creating us. We often think of ourselves as God's children, and it is an apt analogy since He is the one who created us.

In creation we were made in Gods image. This is a mind blowing concept in my opinion. To know that the creator of the universe found you and me important enough to make in His own image, is incomprehensible to me at times. Plantinga suggests that there are three things that put us in God's image. First, we are given stewardship over the earth. An incredible responsibility. We are given a huge sum of power, and it is our duty to take this power and empower those around us, humans, animals, and the planet. The second aspect is that we are made to be in "loving communion with each other." As I mentioned earlier there is the concept of the Trinity living in unity together, and we are made to replicate that as best we can with our relationships with one another and with God. Finally, "we image God by conforming to Jesus Christ in suffering and death."
With our special role in God's creation we are all made with a calling to bring renewal to God's world. This can be done in a multitude of ways, all that matters is that we get started.