Imagine a scene in the labor and delivery floor of the local hospital. A young wife and her husband have just delivered their first child. They look down with love at the tiny infant wrapped in a small pink blanket. Beaming, the mother says, “Isn’t she just the most mediocre baby you have ever seen?”
Imagine if the creation story in Genesis read in similar fashion:
On the third day, God created every kind of plant and fruit and he looked at what he had created and said, “Ehh … so, so.”
And on the fourth day God created the sun and moon and all the lights in the sky, and he looked at what he had created and said, “Well, this is pretty mediocre.”
Then God saw every thing he had made and said, “Hmmm, I could probably do better, but who’s going to know?”
Somehow the story would just lose something.
But, as we should keep in mind, God’s reaction to creation was considerably different. With every new day and every new creation God saw that “it was good.”
And if we were to give God a 21st century vocabulary and demeanor, he would cross some very large arms over a similarly large chest, look around with a big grin on his radiant face and pronounce, “This is good! This is DAMN good!”
Each of us has been endowed by God with the ability to create; to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, our bodies and our minds. Whether we create an environment of love or hospitality in our homes, build friendships or meaningful moments for others; whether we create with words or music, our voices or our hands, when the work is for God and God's people, we can take our cue from our God, stand back and exclaim, “This is damn good!”
Comments