God has Bestowed Creativity Upon His Creation

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by Mary Ann kerr

Creator
noun: a person or thing that brings something into existence.
• (the Creator) used as a name for God.

God is the author of creativity. I realized the other day that I always think of God as the person who created the heavens and the earth eons ago. I’ve never thought of Him as still creating, but He is. Newborn babies whether human or not, a sunset, a new dawn, cloud formations that go scudding across the blue expanse are all newly created. Our Creator never stops creating. He makes everything new. He turns a sin-sick person to a beautiful creation when they acknowledge Him. What an awesome creative God we have!

People ask me where I get the ideas for my books…where do the stories come from? Liberty’s Inheritance was written in a six week period.

True, I added and subtracted a lot of words before it was completed, but the basic story was there and it flowed. I didn’t plan on what I was going to write from day to day. Liberty’s Land, Liberty’s Heritage and Caitlin’s Fire were all written within a fifteen month period. My answer to people who ask where I get my ideas is, “God has bestowed creativity upon each of us, and it gets expressed in a variety of ways. At the present time, mine is writing, but I never was one to make up stories. Could I tell a good joke, yes, but make up a story? Never!”

It was always my husband who was the story teller. He used to make up stories, extemporaneously, to tell our boys before they went to sleep at night. They all would be ready in their jammies, teeth brushed and in their beds ready to go to sleep. Phil, my husband, would lie next to Peter on the lower bunk and spin a story to them with themselves as the protagonists. Most of the stories had a good moral message. I used to wonder how he could ever do that. Now, I ‘reckon’ I know!

I imagine it is different for every writer, but my stories come from my fingertips. The conversations between characters seems to evolve as I type. I named Caitlin’s Fire before I ever knew what Cait would be like or that Fire would end up being her horse. My fifth book, which is yet unnamed, was a more laborious work, but I’m on the sixth book and it is flowing. I am grateful to God and thankful for this time in my life where I can create something that people are saying is the best read they’ve had in a long time. I give God the glory for it and praise Him for this ‘indescribable’ gift that brings enjoyment as well as weaving sound teaching within the stories.

I guess one could say all inspiration, all creativity comes from our Creator whether it is recognized as such or not.

Mary Ann Kerr
Mary Ann Kerr lives in Washington State with her husband, Philip. Living in various parts of the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Denmark, her travels have flavored her writing. Besides writing Christian historical fiction, Mary, a retired teacher, speaks at women’s retreats and luncheons. She has four sons and twelve grandchildren.

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