This is GOOD!

There it is! It’s all finished and hanging for me to look at. I don’t just look, I stare. This is good!, I think to myself.

It is exactly what I imagined it to be.

I know my granddaughter will look so sweet in it.

Little pink socks and white shoes. Will go just perfect.

And a pink bow. 

I don’t know about you but unlike any other work, sewing something gives me satisfaction. When I finish a sewing project, there is a sense of accomplishment, of completion. Most of my work and responsibilities, whether at the shop or at home, are never actually finished (at least not for long), but with sewing, I can put on the last button and cut the last piece of thread  and be done… finished… mission accomplished. I will hang it and look at it for days with a since of fulfillment. “This is good.”

I was pondering one day, as I was experiencing this sewing euphoria, so to speak, this must be a taste of how God felt when He created the world. After all, we are told six times in Genesis  1 that God looked at what He created and called it good. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and their was light. And God saw that it was good.” After He made the sky and the land and put boundaries on the waters He, “saw that it was good.” Plants - it was good”…. Sun and moon - “good”…fish, birds, cattle, animals, even the creeping ones.  “He saw that it was good.” 

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good…” Genesis‬ ‭1:26-27, 31 NASB, 1995

_Don’t you just love the poetic nature of verse 27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” It is beautiful! 

There is so much to consider when we realize that we are created in the image of God. That is one reason it is so important that we seek to know God. The phrase, “I need to find myself,” is not uncommonly cried. We can’t fully understand anything about who we are until we gain understanding of who God is. But can we really be expected to know God? If it seems overwhelming at times, let me assure you are not alone. The apostle Paul felt the same way when he wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”Romans‬ ‭11:33‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬. Yet, God has forever made Himself known to generation upon generation. He has given His word so that we may seek Him and know HIm.  It is what the Bible is all about… Knowing God. When I read any passage in the Bible and try to understand it, I first ask myself, "what does the passage tell me about God?"  With this question in mind as we read the the creation narrative, I believe there are at least three attributes we can apply to God: 

God is creator. This seems obvious, but sometimes we do not actualize what it means to be creator. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” John‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬.

I consider myself to be somewhat creative. I design and create garments, I’ve written songs. I’ve made stuff with stuff that I have lying around the house and a couple of things have been pretty good.   But God …. God is the ultimate creator. He created all that I create with. Even the ideas come from Him.  He is creator. 

God is authority. When God speaks, what He says is and will be accomplished. In the account of creation, God speaks creation into existence. Creation obeys his voice. All creation obeys Him. Well, except when man used his own reasoning instead of God’s (Genesis 3) and disobeyed God’s instruction. When this happened all creation came under the curse of sin which is death. This only proves that what God says is accomplished. God said death would be the result of disobedience and it was so.  (Genesis 2:15-17). God is authority.

God is a planner. God did not just haphazardly put this world together. He carefully planned for each day’s new creation before He even began to create. We can see this in the step by step order of what and when He created something. Before He created a certain element, He had already created what was needed to sustain that element. Think about it, before man was made, animals, birds, and fish were made. He gave these to man for man to rule over them. God knew man needed work and purpose. Before the animal kingdom God made the plant kingdom.  The animals would need these for food to sustain them. Before plants, God made light and the atmosphere which included the ability for plants to survive. Before He made the sun and moon, He made the sky to hang them in. You get my point? 

In a similar way, we plan a garment, what pattern, what fabric, what trims, the notions we need, and the step by step process of bringing all that together. God, before He even began to create the heavens and the earth had a plan and every step along the way, he stopped to see that creation was going according to the plan and “it was good.”

What is amazing is that God even had a plan for when man would disobey. Do not hear me wrong. God did not cause the disobedience, but He, in His wisdom, knew man would disobey. So God, even before He began creating the world had a plan for redeeming man. The Bible from Genesis to Revelation reveals the story of God’s redemption plan.

As I write this, it is Palm Sunday. It is the first day of what Christians call Holy Week. It is the week we remember, mourn and celebrate the events of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Many of us will finish Easter outfits for our children, grandchildren, or others this week. We will hang them, post pictures of them on social media, and stare at them all week thinking, “this is good.” Yet the greatest joy will be next Sunday when they will be worn by the ones we created them for. The garments will be fulfilling their purpose. At this moment all the planning, all the work, any taking out seams, and sewing them over again, all the time spent will be worth it. We will be filled with a THIS. IS. GOOD.

All the while, the very event we celebrate gives us another picture of a well planned garment. The first man, through disobedience to God the creator, left us all wearing a garment of sin, death and shame. Jesus came to sew a new garment of righteousness. Jesus chose to trade out his clothes of righteousness for our clothes of sin which led him to ridicule, shame, and a cruel death on the cross. It is an unfair transaction, I know. But God had a plan for it to be this way. Jesus came in the form of a baby, lived a perfect life, then put on death so mankind could put on life. And Jesus, after living perfectly on earth for 33 years, hung for all to see. While hanging, He Cries, “It is finished,” “All done!”  And as Jesus put on the dress of the world, God turned away. Nothing seemed good that day. However, Isaiah 53  explains that this whole act pleased God. Why? How?  Because God knew He had authority and power over death.  Three days later God revealed this power by resurrecting Jesus from death to life. Garments of righteousness sewn, God’s justice satisfied, and death defeated!  THIS IS GOOD!

God is the creator and author of all creation including you and me. He is a planner and we are a part of his plan. Even though man chose to disobey and bring a judgment of death upon the world, God planned for and overcame sin and death through Jesus His son. Though we are dressed in the curse of sin, God has designed, planned for, and sewn us  a new garment made by the work of Jesus his Son. But for the joy to be complete we must now wear the dress. We must put it on so others  see  the work of God, and give Him glory. Let us be dressed in the GOODNESS of God.