Reflections Devotional                  "God's Creativity"  

Manna falls from the sky as plentifully as dust fills the air. God delivers birds to the center of a campsite, and everyone feasts until they are full. These provisions are the divine response to the challenge in verse 19: “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” The people are asking if the one who caused streams to flow from a rock will be able to provide them meat and bread, too. Are they serious? 

Why do children of such a creative, imaginative God practice such unimaginative faith? Is unimaginative faith even faith at all? We can be awed by experiences of God’s surprising grace one minute and then forget God’s creative gifts in the next. What will it take for us to learn that God delights in forever forging new possibilities and making paths through impossible terrain? God delights in disciples who want to participate in God’s creative work of dreaming new dreams and helping those hopes bear fruit. We follow a creator who sees potential and opportunities that others miss, then calls us to do the same.

God’s creative possibilities are always present. Churches have an abundance of undiscovered gifts and talents. The same God who set a dinner table in the wilderness wants us to realize the abundant life we have yet to explore.