“All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
I believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of the eternal father; that from the first, Jesus is the son, because God is the father. I believe, therefore, that the Father is the greater, that if the Father had not been, the Son could not have been. In saying what I do, I only say what Paul implies when he speaks of the Lord giving up the kingdom to his father, that God may be all in all. I worship the Son as the human God, the divine, the only Man, deriving his being and power from the Father, equal with him as a son is the equal at once and the subject of his father—but making himself the equal of his father in what is most precious in Godhead, namely, Love—which is indeed, the essence of the statement of the evangelist we have been considering—a higher thing than the making of the worlds and the things in them, which he did by the power of the Father, not by a self-existent power in himself, whence the apostle, to whom the Lord must have said things he did not say to the rest, or who was better able to receive what he said to all, says, “All things were made” not by, but “through him.” The Father made essential use of the Son, so that all that exists was created through him. What was the part in creation of the Father and the part of the Son, who can understand?—but perhaps we may one day come to see into it a little; for I dare hope that, through our willed sonship, we shall come far nearer ourselves to creating. The word creation applied to the loftiest success of human genius seems to me a mockery of humanity, itself in the process of creation.
Commentary
by Diane Adams
Sometimes people will say to me, “I’m not a creative-type person.” That makes me smile because in my mind it’s the equivalent of saying, “I’m not an oxygen-breathing type of person.” You live, you breathe. You live, you create. We might not be aware of our creative aspect, or we might think that creating poetry or painting is the sum of it, but truly our lives themselves are a creation. By the Father, through the son, then perhaps to the sons of men, we are participating in creating who we are, what we will become. This is the highest expression of creation, in terms of our own existence, but it may not be the extent of it.
There is a debate in the realm of physics over how much our thoughts affect reality. Not even hardcore materialists can deny that thought affects reality, but some scientists are going further, positing the idea that our thoughts not only affect reality but actually create it. There seems to be more and more evidence for the idea that thought creates reality, and it could be that very soon materialism will become another disproven idea, as people come to realize the importance of their own being in the process of creation.
While physicists debate the issue, there does seem to be one solid takeaway for those of us seeking to understand better and participate in the creative act. What we are inside affects us, it affects others around us and it even affects the world itself. So it is important, as creative creatures, to become familiar with thought processes and how they might help or harm our desire to become more and more like Jesus, less and less like the violence, untruth and mercilessness we see around us every day.
While it’s hard to say for certain to what extent we’re creating what we can feel, touch, taste and see, it is not debatable that we’re creating some of it. "Out of thought comes creation" seems to be the modus operandi here. It is possible to imagine that our state of being, from which our thoughts are formed, is itself a creative force, affecting other people, perhaps even plants, animals and the earth itself. So then it could be very important, in millions of ways still not imaginable, that we become what we should be.
Becoming what we should be is not about what we do; it doesn’t mean becoming a lawyer or a writer or a singer. Those things are important, but they are not what we truly are. What we truly are, in the soul that is being saved, can be observed through prayer and meditation. Are we bitter? Kind? Angry? Welcoming? Truthful? It is important that we ask these questions, and that we continue to yield to the Spirit in the process of becoming like Jesus. We are all, in fact, participating in creation, making a small part of a whole. The well being of our own souls depends on what we are making, but much more may be involved than we can possibly yet understand.