Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
If you read through Genesis 1, you find God admiring His handiwork fairly often. At the end of each day (and sometimes in the middle) we read “and God saw that it was good…” He looks at what has been made and it pleases Him. It’s a theme. And here at the end of the chapter, God takes it all in. The whole thing.
There’s something interesting that usually gets missed through all this. We know that God knows what He is doing. We know that His goodness is perfect and pure and limitless. We know that whatever He does, it is for good. We know these things. Goodness is intrinsic to God. God knows it is good, too.
Yet each time there are distinct moments. God creates… and then God sees. Maybe He takes a moment. Maybe He steps back, takes a sip from His cosmic coffee mug, and simply enjoys it. He “sees” that it is good. The word for that is also translated “observes” or “examines.” Despite knowing it is good, it seems that He chooses to experience it, too.
And here, on the sixth day, God observes all of it and it is “very good.” It all works together. All the pieces fit into the puzzle. Goodness begets goodness and all the goodness together is “very good.”
This is our origin story. This is the heart of God for all of creation. This is where we began and where we end up. This is who we are meant to be and who we can be with and through Him. There’s something of this within each of us, all the time. There’s a glimpse, however fractured or distant or blurry that it may be, of “very good” in you, in me, and in the space between us and it’s from Him. It is Him.
Reflect:
On the verses. On the goodness that God has brought into your life. On the ways that He has and is creating within you and around you.
Journal:
Why is it so hard to see goodness? Why can it be hard for us to identify goodness and growth?
Pray:
To see the way that He sees.
To find the seeds of goodness around you.
For the goodness that God has begun in your life to grow and touch other lives.