My eight-year-old son Jacob loves to play Lego. Whenever we buy him a new set, he always builds that set precisely to the specifications. However, I would rather have him make something from scratch. I would rather have him take the new Lego set, incorporate it with all the other sets he has, and be perpetually creating.
It’s not that I object to him following directions; it’s that I object to him only following directions. I want him to expand on what he’s been given. I want him to extrapolate, intensify, and cooperate with the directions to craft something more robust, more complex, more representative of all he loves and all he can do.
That’s what God wants from us. God wants us to participate with him in his ongoing project of creation, much like I want my son to consider each new Lego set part of his ongoing process of creation.