Curating the Good

This month, for all of October, I am #CuratingtheGood. I am taking note of God’s Good and collecting and organizing my findings here. And I suppose I have done a horrible job of explaining this, but each week I am writing about a different aspect of the “Good.”

Last week, I wrote about God’s goodness. He is good…as in He is a good God and He is good to us. But also this means God=good. All the good in the world is simply a reflection of some aspect of Him. He is the good.

This week we are talking about how He creates good. In Chapter 1 of Genesis, as God formed His creation, He recognized the good in it. He enjoyed His handiwork. God is a curator of good, too!  He is our example. He shows us how to find good and name it.

• Dry land and seas? “And God saw that it was good” (v. 10).
• Vegetation? Seed bearing plants and trees? “And God saw that it was good” (v. 12).
• Sun, moon and stars? “And God saw that it was good” (v. 18).
• Sea creatures and winged birds? “And God saw that it was good” (v. 21).
• Beasts of the earth, livestock, all the creeping things? And God saw that it was good. (v. 25)
• Everything! And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (v. 31).

Creating the Good

God made everything to be good, very good. All that God made is an expression of Himself, including us. Our world is His genius come to life:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John1:1-3, ESV

Jesus, the Word of God, was the force at work in creation. God spoke The Word, and His will was done. We see that Jesus was carrying out His Father’s will from the very beginning.

[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17, ESV

Everything made was made by the work of Jesus…so it had to be good. As we look around at all the created good in our daily lives, we need to see Jesus in it and be thankful—sunshine, fresh air, Fall leaves, buzzing bees, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Mt. Everest, Alabama’s Gulf coast sugar beaches…eyes that constrict and dilate to help us focus, hearts that beat, taste buds and nasal passages that create the sensation of taste, inner ear balance that helps us to ride a bike, the ability to hug and laugh and sing…Jesus is in all the good stuff!

Naming the Good

God determines what is good [sweet, beautiful, excellent, pleasing]. He sets the standards. When we complain about our lives and our world, we speak against God Himself. I am cut to the heart over this truth. Complaining is too easy for me.

Lord, let me seek the good, see the good, and call it good. 

God made us in His image. We are made to imitate Him. Let’s agree with Him. Let’s look for the good and call it out. Thanksgiving is a confession of God’s goodness. Let’s be Good-seekers. Let’s be Truth-speakers. We can swim upstream. We can live in opposition to the darkness in this world. Let’s be good, as He is good.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).

You are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5, ESV).

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16, ESV).

Tell me, what’s good in your life these days? What can you call GOOD? If you’re reading this, you can be thankful that He provided a computer for you and that you live in a time with electricity! Electricity?? Now that’s what I call VERY GOOD!

 

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