Claim. SMM teaches that God’s act of creation was not effortless divine fiat but a total self-investment — a kenotic outpouring of His entire essence that temporarily depleted Him.
Elaboration. The claim runs consistently through section 1.1: “God as the Subject partner completely invested Himself into making His object partner. The creation was the beginning of God’s work through which He determined not to exist for His own sake, but for the sake of His object partner” (1.1.-the-work-of-creation-required-complete-investment, 78-111, 1975.5.6).
Elsewhere: “God completely poured out His true life, true love and true ideals” (ibid, 69-81, 1973.10.20). The analogy used is the artist who gives everything to produce a masterpiece — perfection of the object requires total giving by the subject.
This directly contradicts the common Christian picture of effortless fiat creation. The depletion is not permanent: once the created object partner matures and responds in love, the return exceeds the investment (see csg-true-love-grows-by-investment).
See also. csg-true-love-grows-by-investment, csg-god-oriented-creation-outward