Not impressed with a God that creates

Across denominations and religious traditions, the idea that God is creator is very clear. The idea of God as creator may be one of the handful of characteristics about God that every religion agrees. 

Which is why is may come as a surprise when I say, I am not too impressed with God as a creator.  

We all can create stuff. That really is not that impressive to me. The ability to create something new, while difficult, is much easier than the ability to transform something.  

Transformation requires not only the ability to see something for what it is, but also to see what it could be. Transformation requires that when we look at something we are not bound to the predefined limits of that object.  

For instance, in the amazing TED Talk by Ken Robinson, he brings up the paperclip question. Here is the section of the talk animated by RSA: 

You see most of us see the paperclip for what it is. We are bound to the predetermined limits of the paperclip. So we can think of 15 examples of uses of paperclips. However, with imagination we break out of the predetermined limits of the paperclip and see alternate uses if the paperclip was transformed in some way (200 feet tall). 

When God creates, God really is transforming. This is really quite awesome. We are impressed when we see something new - say a new house or a new car. But we are blown away when we see something transformed - say a car that was rebuilt after a crash.  

Transformation is so world changing that it may be worth noting that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead but we do not have a religion of Lazarus. Both he and Jesus were brought back to life after they died, but only Jesus was understood to be the Son of God.

Why? 

Because Jesus was not brought back to life. Jesus was not resuscitated like Lazarus.  

Jesus was resurrected. Resurrection means you are different - transformed in some way yet recognizable.   

Creating something is great. But transforming something is earth changing.