Jesus is not only intellectual, emotional, holy, loving, and gracious; he is also a creative genius without rival. His imagination dreamed up glowing space nebulae, ladybugs, and the flavor of coffee beans. He spent most of his career as a craftsman. His public ministry was marked by vivid parables that have lived in our imaginations for millennia. Jesus came not only to redeem dead bodies and souls, but also our dead imaginations. In his resurrection, we see three ways he jolts our creativity to life. First, Jesus didn’t resurrect as a ghost. The tomb was empty because He rose bodily. By making things in the material world with great care and ingenuity, our creative actions capture the resurrection truth that matter matters. Second, Jesus rose as a form of protest art against all that is twisted and evil in the present age. His resurrection jolts us out of despair and gives us a hopeful glimpse of the age of justice and joy to come. Our own creative actions should be aligned with that resurrection hope, protesting the despair of the present age and beckoning people to hope in the kingdom Jesus inaugurated. Third, Jesus showed his scars to the disciples. He expressed our resurrection hope within the context of the deep woundedness of the present age. Our own creative work shouldn’t be wispy, airy-fairy, or sentimental. To be truly redemptive, our creative work must honestly reckon with the world’s brokenness. Thaddeus J. Williams, Reflect: A Personal and Small Group Guide for Mirroring Jesus (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 50.
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