Creativity and Compassion

This blog’s “theology of suffering” finds it’s source in the juxtaposition of two key revelations from the Holy Scriptures known as the Tanakh (which includes the Torah, used by the Jews) and the Bible (used by Christians). Both scriptures recount in the book of Genesis (which they share) the story of creation in which everything created was proclaimed “good” except for one factor that was lacking: it was not good for mankind to be alone. Aloneness, therefore, was a primary need built into mankind at the very beginning of creation. The next key revelation comes one book later, in the book of Exodus, when God is asked for the very first time to show himself (and herself – God likely encompasses both genders, but for the sake of readability, we will use the masculine gender) for who he is. The way God answers this questions will become his calling card that is used throughout the rest of the Torah and the Old Testament of the Bible. “I am Compassionate and Gracious….” is God’s answer to the question of who he is.  The first word that God chooses to describe himself is Compassion, which means to Suffer With. This is a most unexpected descriptor for a being as powerful as one who could conjure up an entire universe. It is not a coincidence that God’s description of his essence (compassion and graciousness…) has a direct bearing on the primary need that was built into the mankind, the pinnacle of his creation. Suffering just happens to be the most ruthless and efficient tool that exposes a person’s aloneness.

If mankind’s in-built need is to address his aloneness, and suffering is the one circumstance that will strip away everything else to expose man’s aloneness, then God’s  primary characteristic of being the Suffering-With God not only describes how God intends to meet mankind’s  aloneness by suffering with them, but also hints at the depths and cost that God is willing to pay to do so. It is not a coincidence that the only aspect of Love that God could not demonstrate within the perfection of heaven was compassion. This particular aspect or quality of love needed suffering to exist before it could be demonstrated. God needed to create a realm in which their creation suffered, so that he could join in that suffering to demonstrate the extent of his Love. In this sense, compassion is an extreme demonstration of love.

The same could be construed with regards to Creativity. It is one thing to create something beautiful out of nothing. It is another thing entirely to create something beautiful out of something ugly, broken, or disfigured. In fact, one might argue that it requires more creativity to fashion beauty out of brokenness than out of nothing. The natural world around us has ample demonstrations of the kind of beauty that God can create out of nothing. A trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountains or to the coastline along California’s Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1)
can provide countless examples of that. But there is another quality of beauty embodied in human stories of redemption and compassion which rival and surpass the beauty of the natural world. Mother Theresa’s and Julie McGown’s work among the destitute and dying (the Living Room in Kipkaren, Kenya) are examples of such redemption, and are testaments to how God can create beauty out of brokenness. Just as compassion takes love to a whole new deeper level, redemption takes creativity to a new and deeper level as well. What if God did not stop creating after the six days described in Genesis? What if his creative skill is being demonstrated through finding new ways to bring beauty out of pain, brokenness, and tragedy today?

If this were true, then the God of the Bible has revealed to us two existential needs: to demonstrate his Love (through compassion) and to demonstrate his Creativity (through redemption). This blog will explore in much more detail evidence throughout the rest of the Torah/Tanakh and the Bible which supports this assertion.