Co-Creation or Sub-Creation

When we choose to create with God, our art and our hearts come alive.

Yet how we enter into this creative process with God makes a difference. Do we see ourselves co-creating with God on the playground of ideas—or God up above us somewhere waiting to see what we come up with down here?

Co- means “with” and sub- means “under”. The distinction between co-creating and sub-creating is so much more than semantics. How we define the creative act impacts our expectations for what is possible.

Sub-creation views the creative process somewhat like this: God is up in the sky, far above us. He’s given us specific gifts and talents. Now he’s waiting to see what we do with them. So we get busy and create things for God. Then we lift them up, hopeful that he approves. J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay, “On Fairy Stories” presents his views on sub-creating. He’s obviously a master storyteller, but I prefer God’s invitation to co-create.

Creation is an intimate act, not something God subcontracts out to us and then checks in occasionally to make sure we’re doing our job right. There’s oversight but no intimacy in that process.

Co-creation is more like a dance. God isn’t up there somewhere. He is with us. Present.

Does this concept of co-creation diminish God’s authority? Absolutely not. There’s no question he is the Creator and we are his creation. He is Father and we are sons and daughters. There’s no contest of who the Alpha is. Yet even so, there’s nothing we have to earn or prove. He is not distant. He is with us. And he invites us, as his sons and daughters, to join him in the interactive, intimate, shared act of co-creation.

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