David Godwin - sub-creator - (Topic of Choice #4)

One topic we discussed in class that has stuck with me all semester long was that of the “sub-creator.” Both Tolkien and Lewis discuss this idea in their essays on fantasy and its connection with literature. This idea has resonated within me before I ever even heard it labeled anything. I remember reading the Genesis story one day, and thinking about God’s seventh day of rest. It said that after He created man, God rested. The fact that He was able to rest struck me. I thought about what it means to create. I like to write poetry, so I thought about my many attempts at writing a good poem. I like to write in isolation, so that no one will peak over my shoulder at an incomplete and imperfect work. I cannot rest while writing a good poem until I feel like I have reached its only possible end. I do not walk away from it until I am satisfied that I have done all I can to make it beautiful.
When I read that passage about God resting, it made me realize, first, that I am a sub-creator. The same experience that God felt in creating all of the heavens and the earth, I have experienced in writing. Obviously my creation is on a much smaller scale, but I still create. I like to think that this desire to create comes from God. We are, after all, created in His image. Could I have taken God’s creative passion with me? I agree with Lewis and Tolkien in answering yes. But the second thing that hit me about this parallel is its implication about the creation of man. If God were not been pleased with man, the very last thing he created, He would not have been able to rest. What does this say about our creation? I think it means that we are God’s last line, the only way to end the poem. Just as I cannot walk away from a poem without that perfect last line, neither could God walk away from His creation-in-progress without first creating us. Tolkien and Lewis provided the first half of this equation for me. I had to know, first, that I was a sub-creator in the image of God. But once I applied my experiences to His, I realized what creation must have been like.
I think metaphors such as these are littered throughout our everyday lives. We are made in the image of God, thus who we are reflects His identity on a smaller scale. The things that we experience—love, humor, sadness, rage—these are all things God experiences. I don’t think we share these qualities with God just so that we can feel good about having the title of sub-creator. I think that we were given such common factors in order to relate to Him, to know what He thinks and what He feels when He looks down at us and into our world. When we understand what it means to finish a project, for instance, we can understand how God sees us—the finishing touches on His work of art.