“Did you make all this?” I asked. I was looking at an elaborate well-constructed model railroad layout in a friend’s basement. “Yes,” he said, “Every detail.” “Wow!” I replied, “I’m very impressed!”
I have always been impressed with crafty people—people who can make things that are clever and attractive with their hands. To be a creative person is a wonderful gift from God. But the ultimate creative person is God Himself, who created the heavens and the earth.
Now in John 1:3, John tells us that the One who really did the creating was Christ (the second member of the Godhead). He says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” John’s Gospel is devoted to telling us that Jesus Christ is God. In fact, He is the very God who created the world. John says, “All things were made by him.”
The word “all things” is one Greek word, pan, which means “all, or every.” We have it in our English word “Pan American,” which means all the Americas (north, south, and central). Here in John 1:3 the word is in the neuter, plural form. So it means, really, “all things.”
Think of it! Everything that was ever made in the creation was the handiwork of Christ.
- The land and water and air that form our environment were His idea
- He crafted the mountains and the valleys and the great plains
- He designed the snowflakes and the raindrops —
- the plants and trees and every gorgeous flower
- The insects came off His drawing board – including the butterfly with its amazing colors
His creativity spared no limits as He molded the creatures that would inhabit our planet. Every kind of fish and bird and amphibian and reptile and mammal… And then came His crowning achievement: “MANKIND” – made in the very image and likeness of God!
“All things were made by him.” Now, that’s impressive!
Now you know the real meaning of the word.
Hey – Look at a beautiful sunset or a gorgeous landscape. Is the Lord artistic, or what?