My Bug Hotel

These days, when the Covid-19 pandemic means so many restrictions, I guess, although a lot of people are still working hard, many are like me, finding each day seems so boringly like the day before. There are all the things we can’t do, and I was getting to feel pretty fed up. So, not being able to think of anything better to do, I made a bug-hotel – you know, a kind of house where insects can breed in the summer and hibernate in the winter. I had some bits of wood, left over from something else and put aside ‘in case they came in useful’. Well, today they did. And, in an hour or so I had knocked up something I was quite pleased with. And I felt so happy!

That’s when I felt that God was talking to me. It was something like this: “Richard, you’ve created something, that’s why you’re so happy”. It brought into focus something I knew all along, but had forgotten. It isn’t the quality or importance of what we create that matters. It’s the act of creation. When God created the universe, He made many wonderful and magnificent things, but He also made things that are so insignificant we don’t even notice them.

Psalm 104 celebrates God’s delight in everything He’s created. He reminds Job that even animals that seem useless or ridiculous give Him delight. Just think of the stupid ostrich (Job 39:17); or the crocodile – you wouldn’t put one on a lead and give it as a pet for your little girls, would you (Job 41:5)? And all the tiny insects and creepy-crawlies that will find shelter and a home in my bug hotel – doesn’t God delight in them, too? When we create something, however insignificant, we are doing what our Father does. He loves it! So, of course it makes us happy.

It makes us happy because we are entering into our Father, the Creator’s world. We are doing what He does. We are reflecting His ‘image and likeness’ (Genesis 1:26), and that nourishes our spirit-to-Spirit relationship with Him. Our human spirit rises up in us and we begin to feel good through and through.

As I write this, I’m making a decision. I’ll try to make something every day. It doesn’t have to be big or important. It doesn’t have to be useful. It doesn’t even have to be beautiful. It could even be just a doodle on a piece of paper, or I could write something. It just needs to be something that has come out of the God-given creativity that every one of us has. So, what are you going to create today?

Prayer: Father, thank You so much that You’ve given me the imagination and ability to create things. I’m sorry for the times I’ve neglected Your gift. Please help me to use it and, through it, would you nourish my spirit today? Amen.