God is ... good?

While sitting in my backyard, flies buzzing, the evening shade coming across the cement patio, my dear friend said these words to me:  God is good.  She used an illustration that she borrowed from a speaker.  It's a visual ... and I love visuals!

If you begin to button a shirt, you start with the top bottom.  When it is lined up, the rest of the buttons, generally, will line up too.  However, if you miss button the first one, it is likely the rest of the shirt will be "off".  The first button, in the lives of those who follow Jesus, must be the hard-core and sometimes hard to swallow truth that God is good.

I'm ungrateful.  When I hurt, there is a place deep, deep, deep, deep in my heart that thinks that God is not good.  There.  I said it.  What I feel this lover of my heart is trying to say to me is that I'm believing a lie.  God is ... good.

When I drop a baby girl off at college, and my heart wants to explode from the intensity of emotion ... God is good.  When I get a surprise phone call from that baby girl at college ... because she just wants to tell me about her day ... God is good.

When my friend is suffering from a panic attack ... and doesn't know what to do ... God is good.  When my husband knows he is supposed to go sit with our friend ... God is good.

When my Libby is called out of her "normal" class into the "special" class to get special help ... God is good.  When Libby comes home and tells me that she didn't listen to that accusing voice that told her she wasn't good enough to stay in the "normal" class because she knows she just needs extra help ... God is good.

A day later, while sitting in my backyard, flies buzzing, the morning sun coming across the cement patio, I reflected on the words my dear friend said:  God is good.  As I thought about that statement, life burned within that place that only God can see.  Truth told me that asking for hurt, pain, hardship, irritations to be removed as a result of God being good is not the answer.  Seeing His fingerprints right smack dab in the middle of the hurt, pain, hardship and irritation ... that is the miracle!  That's when I begin to see that God really is ... good!!

Learning to re button my shirt,
Christina