We Are Sub-Creators
The earliest people, using the simplest tools, spent time painting and creating. But why? We often imagine life before modern technology as nothing more than survival. In a world of constant danger and scarce resources, why bother painting cave walls or carving figures? On the surface, it seems like wasted energy when every minute could be spent finding food or crafting useful tools.
Art is extravagantly non-functional. Naturalism can offer functional explanations for some aspects of art. Color perception, for example, is useful for finding food and reading emotion. But color perception is widespread in the animal kingdom. Only humans, as far as we know, turn that perception into symbolic art.
Scripture gives this creative impulse a foundation in Genesis 1:27. God is a creator, and those made in his image naturally mirror that creativity. Art is more than a meaningless byproduct of natural processes. As Tolkien argued, “we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”
Art, Beauty, and Longing
Naturalism can explain desires connected to survival, like hunger, thirst, and the need for connection, but it cannot account for the deeper longings of humanity. We reach for meaning, we crave transcendence, and we sense that there is a world beyond this one. Naturalism also fails to adequately explain why beauty feels like an invitation, why it seems intentional rather than accidental. In this way, art bears witness to God. Beauty awakens a desire that nothing natural can satisfy. A painting can make us long for something we cannot name. A poem can stir a homesickness for a world we have never seen.
Modernity insists that life has no ultimate meaning, but artists rarely seem convinced. They keep creating, exploring, imagining, and asking questions. This longing is not random. In every other case, our desires point to real things. Hunger seeks food, and thirst seeks water. If we desire something that nothing in this world can fulfill, the most natural conclusion is that we were made for more than this world.
Art, Beauty, and Morality
Art and beauty are intertwined with moral reality. Across cultures and throughout history, stories tend to follow the same patterns. Heroes fight for what is good. Villains twist truth. Sacrifice is honorable. Justice matters. Redemption stirs something deep within us. From ancient epics to modern films, we find similar patterns of harmony, disruption, struggle, sacrifice, and restoration.
These themes appear again and again because the moral order of the universe is etched into the human heart (Romans 2:15). Even storytellers who deny objective morality cannot avoid employing it. Their stories still operate in a world where courage is preferable to cowardice, betrayal wounds, and love heals. Whenever we create, we reveal what we know deep down: that goodness is real, that evil is not merely a matter of taste, and that the world is shaped by a moral order higher and older than any culture.
Humans reflect divine creativity through art. Our search for meaning, our response to beauty, and our awareness of right and wrong all point to a reality beyond the material world. Art awakens a deep desire within us that nothing in this world can fully satisfy, reminding us that we were made for more than survival and pleasure. In every brushstroke, every story, and every act of creation, we catch a glimpse of the one who is the ultimate source of beauty, truth, and goodness. Through our art, we participate in the creator’s work and are drawn ever closer to the world for which we were made.
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