Good
Stories
THE WONDER OF WORDS: BOOK 2
ONE-HUNDRED MORE WORDS AND PHRASES SHAPING HOW CHRISTIANS THINK AND LIVE
"In the beginning of time God created everything, step by step. Slowly, wonderfully, he shaped form out of chaos, gently molding with his mighty hands day and night, lands and seas, grass and fruit trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, birds, fish, cattle, and finally, a man and a woman. Day after day he smiled approvingly at the result of each day's labor. 'Good,' he said, 'it's all good, very good'." This is how Walter Albritton has paraphrased the creation story in Genesis, which ends with these words: "And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)
What does the word good mean in that text? Obviously, it does not mean simply what profits human beings, since the word good is used several times in the narrative before man is created. Rather, something is good when it fulfills the purpose for which it was made. A good typewriter, for example, is one that does the job for which it was designed.
Why does the divine "Yes" of God's approval ring out as he surveys the goodness of his creation? First, God calls nature good because it is what he designed it to be: the impartial, dependable, uniform stage on which the moral drama of man's history can be enacted. As Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." Second, God calls man good because he is what God intended him to be, namely "the image of God." Man is the mirror-image of God because, in his power of choice, he reflects the Creator's freedom. While man has misused this gift of freedom, it is still an essential part of his nature. This is the original goodness of man which precedes "original sin." You can't have a bad egg on your hands unless it was first a good egg. While the sins of men have broken the heart of God (the inner meaning of the cross of Christ), he still respects our freedom, but says with divine care, "I will never give up on you!" "He goes looking for the one that got lost until he finds it." (Luke 15:4)
What does the word good mean in that text? Obviously, it does not mean simply what profits human beings, since the word good is used several times in the narrative before man is created. Rather, something is good when it fulfills the purpose for which it was made. A good typewriter, for example, is one that does the job for which it was designed.
Why does the divine "Yes" of God's approval ring out as he surveys the goodness of his creation? First, God calls nature good because it is what he designed it to be: the impartial, dependable, uniform stage on which the moral drama of man's history can be enacted. As Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." Second, God calls man good because he is what God intended him to be, namely "the image of God." Man is the mirror-image of God because, in his power of choice, he reflects the Creator's freedom. While man has misused this gift of freedom, it is still an essential part of his nature. This is the original goodness of man which precedes "original sin." You can't have a bad egg on your hands unless it was first a good egg. While the sins of men have broken the heart of God (the inner meaning of the cross of Christ), he still respects our freedom, but says with divine care, "I will never give up on you!" "He goes looking for the one that got lost until he finds it." (Luke 15:4)
