“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God saw that it was good.”
-Genesis 1:1,12b
As I was growing up, my favorite comic strip was The Far Side by Gary Larson. I don’t know how popular the comic was in Scotland, but in the US, Gary Larson was the comic king. For most of my childhood years, on Christmas morning I would receive the coveted gift of a Far Side Calendar from my grandparents in my stocking. The calendar featured a new comic for every day, so I could start every day with a bit of (often dark) humor like the comic that you see below.
Larson’s humor came in that he had a way taking our experience with the world and twisting it just a bit to show the underlying comedy. As we look at the comic, I think we can all readily admit that we’ve all thought the same thing from time to time. We’ve looked at the way the world works, or sometimes doesn’t work, and thought, “Something tells me this thing’s only half baked.” And in one sense, theologically speaking, we’re right. Christ has come and Christ has risen, but we’re still working and waiting for Christ to come back and make all things right. So in a way, yes, “this thing's only half baked”.
But on a deeper level, we know that what God created was, and still is good. The opening chapters of our bibles proclaim that truth from the very beginning. The words of Genesis are written to assure us that when God set out to create all things, God created exactly what God meant to create. The book does this poetically by repeating that wonderful phrase in each stanza, or on each “day” of creation, “and God saw that it was good”. This repetition assures us of the profound truth that as God looks at each of us and at all creation, God does not see it as “only half-baked”, but what God sees is good.
There are no doubt many things in our lives and the world that can make us doubt this reality, and there are certainly things that happen in our lives and this world that are not good. But as we move through these months of summer and witness the vitality and vibrancy of God’s creation around us, may it reassure us of God’s goodness and remind us that as part of that creation, we are not “half-baked”. Instead, may we know that we and all people are shaped and made in God’s image, and seeing each of us and all that he has made, God looks and sees “that it is good”. Thanks be to God.
Yours in Christ,
Jake