Write 28 Days - Creativity

Happy Valentine's Day! I don't usually take Valentine's Day celebrations very seriously, but I like chocolate (dark chocolate, please) as much as the next girl. Plus it's so sweet to see the younger couples being all romantic. 

Valentine's Day is all about LOVE nowadays, but it started out as the feast day of a Christian martyr. Saint Valentine's history is mixed up with some legend, but it's known that he took a stand for Christian marriage during a time when the Roman emperor forbade his soldiers to marry. One popular story says that while he was in prison, Valentine became close to his jailer's daughter (they might even have been in love!) and when he was taken away to be executed, he left her note. It was signed, "From your Valentine". 

Valentine greetings were popular during the Middle Ages, with the first written greetings appearing during the 1400s. The oldest known valentine is a poem that Charles, Duke of Orleans wrote to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415. The practice of sending cards and flowers to loved ones on Valentine's Day became popular in England during the 1700s. By the middle of the 18th century, friends and lovers of all social classes exchanged these tokens of affection. Hallmark produced the first commercially printed card in 1913, and ready-made cards made it easier for people to express emotions during a time in history when that was not often encouraged. Today, more than a billion Valentine's cards are sold each year. And many people like to create their own cards - especially kids. 

Matisse Inspired Valentine by Kat, 2012

That heart shape, like the box your chocolates came in, wasn't representative of love until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. At that time the heart was thought of as a book of memory, where God's commands could be written, and where thoughts of one's beloved could be written as well. During the 14th century, an Italian poem accompanied by an illustration featuring hearts and a cupid throwing arrows and roses was what started our association of those lacy hearts and cupid's arrows with romantic love. You have Richard Cadbury (yes, Cadbury's chocolate) to thank for the traditional heart-shaped box of candy. He gave chocolates in a heart-shaped box to his sweetheart in 1868, and the company began producing the boxes with hand-decorated lids.

It certainly seems like there's something about expressing love that inspires our creativity. Poems and symbolic heart shaped cards and illustrations, love songs, homemade Valentines, beautifully presented flowers and candy and chocolates, promises and gifts. Even marriage proposals carefully planned to be a unique and creative surprise and happy memory. 

Creativity comes from our Creator - who created because he loved. And because we are created in his image, we have the creative spark as well. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. . . so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ~Genesis 1:1, 27

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. ~Psalm 139:13

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ~ Ephesians 2:10

We messed up what God created, but He continued to love, so He also continued to create. He had a plan to mend what we'd broken and bring us back into relationship with Him. 

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ~Ephesians 2:13-16

When we let him, he will re-create our hearts and lives, so that we can love him the way we should, and so that we can show his love to others.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ~Psalm 51:10

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! ~II Corinthians 5:17

So let love inspire your creativity. Whether it's music or art or handwork or words or food or inventions or mechanics or hospitality . . . whatever you do, do it to glorify God and to share and show love.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. ~Colossians 3:16-17

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See complete instructions for our easy Matisse-inspired Valentine, and the original Matisse project here: Virtual Refrigerator: Matisse-Inspired Cut Paper

Some of this article is adapted from the original version of this article which appeared on Homeschool Coffee Break on February 14, 2017.

This post is part of the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge hosted by Anita Ojeda. Find all my posts for the challenge here: Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge - Disappointed

This post is also linked at Scripture and a Snapshot hosted by Just A Second, and at Sunday Scripture Blessings, hosted by Peabea's Photos and Scribbles, and at Selah, hosted by A Spirit of Simplicity.

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