Do you like crossword puzzles? If you do you aren’t alone. Lots of sources put them as the number one puzzle in the world, in terms of popularity (ahead of jigsaw puzzles, word searches, and sudoku). Crossword puzzles began in 1913, when Arthur Wynne created one for the “New York World” newspaper for Christmas. It was originally called “word-cross,” and was such a hit that the editor of the paper asked Wynne to keep making more of them. If you are curious it is not hard to find the first one online with an internet search.
Have you ever wondered why such puzzles are popular? There are a lot of benefits. For example, your problem solving skills improve, as does your memory. Your focus might get better too. There are probably other reasons you could list, but I will go ahead and give you what I think is the most important one. Working puzzles gives you that “a-ha” moment. It makes us feel good to solve them. We get a sense of accomplishment, especially if we happened to find a creative solution to some intriguing puzzle.
The biggest toy company in the world knows all about this feeling. I am talking about the Lego corporation, whose brand value in 2024 was close to 8 billion dollars. 600,000 lego sets are sold every day (7 sets per second). The appeal is near universal. Young and old, male and female. Everyone likes legos. I recently went to a Lego brick convention, where people would show off their own unique creations from the toy building blocks. It was incredible to see the things that people came up with. Legos are so popular because you can build what you want with them. And you get that “a-ha” moment when you do.
This feeling is not limited to just toys and puzzles. The same thing occurs when we finish a craft, or build a piece of furniture in our woodworking shop. Or maybe the feeling comes from creating a nice dinner and/or dessert. It can even come from building a web site or writing a software program. In any of these cases, you get the feeling of joy that comes from expressing your creativity. You can proudly say “Look what I did,” when you finish a project.
It’s almost like we were meant to do this.
Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
From the start the bible tells us one thing. God is the Creator. And right after that the bible tells us that we were created in God’ s image. This means we are able to create things too. We create with what God has created. It is as if God has dumped a universe full of Lego pieces and is letting us make things with them.
Now, what should we create?
Well, God created and saw that the creation was good. Shouldn’t we do the same? Shouldn’t we create things that are good? Shouldn’t we create good technology, good healthcare, good relationships, and good systems of government? Isn’t this the mandate that God has given us, to bless others?
We are made to create. Our brains reward us for being creative. This is in our DNA, and God gave that to us. Why not spend some time this week thinking of the good things you can do with this gift?
God bless,