LEGO blocks are the best toy ever invented. I will argue that fact until my last breath, though I will not spend too much time here defending my assertion. Suffice it to say that these molded pieces of plastic that come in multivariate shapes, sizes, colors, and functions, and that stick together well enough to build a tower, yet come apart with relative ease (most of the time!) enable creative expression in both young and old. LEGO is a toy that inspires, that entertains, that elicits great sorrow when a piece is lost, and great pain when a piece is then found (with a foot or vacuum cleaner). Whether you want to pretend to be a knight at King Arthur’s Round Table, a buccaneer on the high seas, an astronaut mining ore on a distant planet, or just an average townsperson living in a brick house where everything is awesome, you can do it all.
I believe the “ultimate, ultimate” reason we enjoy LEGO so much is that we were made in the image and likeness of our Creator, and thus we love to be creative as well. Though, to be truly creative, we must act with intention (yes, that is a clear diss on much of what is called “modern art”). We don’t just toss a bin of blocks on the floor and say, “Behold! I have created!” The only thing we have made at that point is a mess our mother is going to tell us to clean up. No, we must pick up a brick and press it onto another, and another, and so on until something is formed. In the same way, the Bible is explicitly clear that the LORD purposefully made the heavens and the earth. Psalm 95 tells us that “The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” Think about that for a moment – “…His hands formed…” God didn’t just haphazardly throw the earth together in hopes it would support life. He created a world that works, a world that awes, a world that puts His wisdom and love on display.
The world works because His hands formed mountains, valleys, plains, and hills. If the earth were covered only in mountains, where would the food grow? If He made only plains and prairies, where would the storehouses of snow be that water the ground? If He made only dry land, where would the moisture come from that makes the rains fall from coastlands to thousands of miles inland? Indeed, like a potter with clay, the Lord, by His hands, formed the mountain peaks, carved the canyons, smoothed the plains, rippled the hill country, and initiated processes by which all these work together to make life not only possible, but enjoyable for His chief creation – mankind.
It is a willfully dull and depraved mind that looks at all these wonders and does not see the mighty and wise hand that brought it all to be. How sad it must be not to look at a sunset and see it as the masterful expression of beauty from a loving Father who gives good gifts to His children. What a tragedy it is when “enlightened” minds fail to acknowledge the necessary reality of the intentional and intelligent design of all we see, from the symbiotic relationships in nature to the inexplicably intricate and delicate workings of the human body. What a great evil it is when a man looks at all this and says, “Chance,” rather than give glory to the God who gives them the very breath with which they deny His existence.
One does not have to search far to find something wonderful that can and should inspire worship. I recently moved from Colorado to Nebraska with my family, and while there are no longer “purple mountain majesty” and deeply scoured canyons to give rise to praise for the Creator, I have already found – such as when taking time to stoop down and discover agates hidden in the dirt, or when driving my son to the airport at sunrise while a storm moving in caused the sky to ignite in fiery oranges and reds – there are many evidences of God’s handiwork even here.
We love to both create and to admire creation. It’s in our nature because of how and why we were created. Yet, we also see both the beauty and brokenness of the world, and we long for the day when the Master Builder will make a new heaven and new earth, unmarred by sin and without the curse. What an amazing thing it will be to behold the creation as it was originally designed to be, and that through eyes undimmed by pain, sorrow, pride or unbelief. Thanks be to God we have been given the opportunity to experience this renewal of all things through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pens and Picks 