Finding ALL the Good
The butterflies and anticipation that builds in your soul when you have a secret or surprise for someone you love is so exhilarating!
Have you ever gone to a surprise party and waited to yell, “SURPRISE!” at just the right moment? Or finally found THE perfect gift for someone and could hardly wait to see their face when they opened it? Remember all of those feelings?
One of my favorite things is the building anticipation of waiting for my kids to figure out the clues that lead them to their final gift at Christmas. It’s all I can do to not point them in the right direction to hurry it along! But I savor each moment as they try to get into my thoughts and figure out what in the world the quirky riddles mean...and I wait on edge because I know they’ve almost guessed the answer. Heart banging in my ribs, breath stuck in my esophagus, anxiously leaning in, willing my thoughts to penetrate their mind, biting my tongue so hard I know there will be endentions and just hoping I can still taste the goodness of all the food that will come later!
Then, their eyes light up and they run to the secret hiding place where their gift will surely be! But they were wrong…and the anticipation grows… and I pray they don’t get frustrated so I encourage them with a little, “You can do it!” or “You’re so close!”...Finally, they’ve found it and I jump for joy and beam like a lighthouse while I wait for them to open it. It’s almost exhausting.
I figure that’s how God is with us.
All He wants for us is to accept His blessings and find the joy He has for us. Sometimes we just want to hurry up and go straight to the reward. Forget the things that lead up to them, just gimme!
But when we take the time to work through the challenges, figure out the “riddles''...He helps us. He doesn’t sit for hours and try to figure out the hardest clues for the ones who know Him the best. I doubt that He even stresses His mind to be vague and witty. Probably, He even leaves a trail of crumbs for us and we point the dog to them instead of making the effort to see where they lead.
Mostly, He waits for us to stop banging our heads on the door we want the blessing to be behind while He’s holding the right one wide open...with flashing lights and a red carpet that we don’t even notice.
Pay attention! Come on...He didn’t create us to be lost. Not even to make things hard on ourselves.
He. is. Right. There. Always.
And He is always good.
Every definition of “good”describes Him.
Not just sometimes. Not just when the weather is nice and the flowers are blooming, or on payday, or when He’s hanging out with His buddies...He’s always good. He’s never had to impress anyone, never tried to be someone He wasn’t…
He is, and has always been, In All Ways-Good
