All That Is Made

This book is a celebration of the Creator God who created all that is made and invites us as humans into a continual process of co-creation. It is a purposeful urge to reorient our making away from idols of productivity or self-promotion and towards others and the world. It is a gentle reminder that God has delighted in our existence since before we knew him, and continues to delight in what we bring, albeit imperfect, broken, and lacking. We do not earn our keep; it is lavished on us. So we, in turn, pour ourselves out for others through our making, trusting the perfect Creator to use our humble gifts in magnificent ways.

Jesus invites us into a generous creating—a creating that does not fear, that is not self-conscious, and that is generative in purpose… ultimately our art should be generous. A gift. A thing given over and over and over because we are called to be love to the whole of the Earth.

— All That Is Made, page 22.

All That Is Made is a guiding hand in reimagining creativity as an aspect of all humans instead of an elite few. We are all made in the image of God, so we all carry the desire to create, to make, and to build. This frees us from constructs of who is creative and who is not, and the pressures that come with each (the pressure to produce and the feeling of inferiority, respectively). And in that freedom, All That Is Made argues that we should all take part together in boldly reimagining the world as it should be, on earth as it is in heaven, with all the elusive stepping stones between here and there.

It is our artists, our poets, and our entrepreneurs who remind us that how it is right now, is not how it always will be. It is creatives that remind us that the arc of the universe bends towards God’s justice. It is creatives that both give voice to our suffering and imagine a world in which it is not wasted.

— All That Is Made, page 15.

If nothing else, All That Is Made did for me what it advocates for all creativity to do: to bring healing, restoration, and hope. As a mathematician and computer scientist, I’ve endured a lot of boxes being put around me in how formulaic or robotic my thinking and work must be. Against the backdrop of tech culture, passion projects feel worthless without a monetization strategy. I’ve been afraid that I don’t know what I need to know to make an impact.

But I know that this work is creative. I know that it is generative in purpose. And I want my making to be a gift to those around me: I want to give it all away. Open-source, easy to use, and out in the world to be used however God and others might use it. This has always been true in my heart of hearts. To see my desires spelled out on beautiful pages was both relief and clarity. Reflecting on it invokes something deep and emotional in my soul.

Creatives who follow the way of Jesus are called to give away every last trade secret, every lesson learned, every skill set acquired, and lots and lots of art.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

We are creative, not for ourselves, but for the flourishing of humanity. We start companies, not for personal gain but to reimagine the marketplace as a place of generosity. We make things so that our communities are filled with the creative energy of God, allowing the next generation to join in the work of ushering in shalom.

— All That Is Made, page 29.

Hallelujah. Amen. May it be so.

Notes

Geoff Gentry gifted this book to Annie and I, hoping that it would be something useful to reflect on. He was right.