Today’s readings speak to us about the wonderful, spiritual quality of goodness. We have the creation story, or at least the beginning of it, in which God is not only creating the world and everything in it, but also finding it to be good. And I think that we can relate to that in some way, because we find created things good all the time. Think about a vacation or road trip you’ve taken and found some beautiful countryside. Maybe you’ve seen mountains, or the vast ocean, or hiked some incredible trails through rich forested countryside. When you’ve been there, looking at all that wonderful creation, perhaps stood there as the sun was setting or rising, maybe you’ve even said a prayer of thanks to God for creating such wonders and allowing you to see them. You too see that it is very good.
But there’s even more than that in it for us. When we behold such wonders, such things that are very good, we can also see in them the One who is Goodness itself. We see God in his creative genius, imparting some of his own Goodness into our world so that we might find goodness too. In the mountains, we see God’s strength and might; in the forests, his embrace; in the waters, his refreshing mercy. Our Good God has painted the world with his Goodness, so that we might desire the Good and come at last to Him.
Goodness is all around us, because God created the world to be good. Today, we can look around to see the good we might otherwise miss: good in people and good in creation – all of it bringing us back to our God who is Goodness itself. The psalmist leads us today in the prayer that we are moved to pray when we are in the presence of such Good:
How manifold are your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you have wrought them all—
the earth is full of your creatures;
Bless the LORD, O my soul! Alleluia.