It Is Good

In the beginning, God said—and seeds sprouted! Fruit trees bore fruit! The pomegranate tees blushed in pomegranates, apple trees bowed with golden gifts, the cherry trees chuckled with cherries. The grasses waved stately manes of seed heads, dandelions joyfully sent flying their seeds. God beamed: “plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:12). 

And the sun gave sun and the moon gave night light—and God saw that it was good!

God crafted man out of the dust of the earth—and the first not good. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:18) was the divine verdict.

Why was it not good that man was alone? I have often heard it from a needs-base: he would be lonely. But what if it was because he was loved, and like God, made in the image of God, he was love and also wanted to overflow in love? He could image God not only by loving God, but also image God by loving another just as he loved himself. Not being alone—the two great commandments were the operating, ruling system. Not that “I need someone so I am not alone, so that my needs are met.” Adam was filled with love, and like his Father, desired to overflow in love to someone of his own image too, to someone who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.

Each plant, seed, animal, sun, and moon gave forth according to their own kind. Yet man, to give forth according to his image, his Creator, needed to love. This was his fruit.

A subtle but momentous shift—from me-focused needs to outward-focused love as our very creation and imaging. We put the emphasis on being loved and the negative accentuation on being alone: our need. Yet the culmination is loving, and the negative is on not loving!

Is this the attitude I go in to grocery stores with and clothing stores—the true successful trip would be to love, not just to get this over with, get my list, or get that deal?

Do I truly ask how I can give more than I receive?

Do I truly see God as one who wants to give to me, more than he needs from me?

When I’m in a relational conflict, do I see it as not good that my needs/wants/desire isn’t met and that I’m the one out, or do I see it as not good that I’m not loving (regardless of whether the other person is or is not loving)?

When we’re with that can-talk-forever-about-the-corn-on-her-big-toe-and-the-price-of-yogurt person, are we more annoyed with her or the fact that I’m not loving her?

We know we should love.

But sometimes I think we:

…see it as more of an obligation than a joy…

…celebrate it as impressive in a few people who do it well, rather than seeing it as what we were all created to be…

…justify our moments of not loving as “Oh, I’m just human,” rather than seeing not-loving as a hideous aberration and the give-give-abounding-love as truly human.

It is only in Christ that we can be truly human. To be fully human is to be like Christ, in his patience with his disciples, his tough love with the Pharisees, forgiveness from the cross, and loving even unto death.

Our God loves—he held nothing, nothing back.

We are created and re-created in his image.

Plants give seeds; fruit trees give fruit; light gives light.

Humans, in the image of God, are to give love.

He is Love. Let us love.

Love Himself is in us; Love Himself is our life.

And God says, "It is good." 

“If then you have been raised with Christ… and [you] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…. as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved…put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony…. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name [character, being, nature, essence] of the Lord Jesus” (from Colossians 3, ESV)