God is good

Is God really good and what does that actually mean?

The question came to me as I pondered a rash of recent

marriage engagement announcements. From early spring

through the summer, my Facebook news feed was littered with

pictures of ring-finger bling and smiling couples squeezing their

faces together in self-portraits. Many of their status updates

echoed the same sentiment: “God is good!”

I don't doubt the words, and the act of two people coming

together for the purposes of marriage in this messy world is

certainly something to celebrate. However, I wondered, if we

call God good when things go right, does it mean He’s not

good when things go wrong? If one person is hearing wedding

bells and another is served with divorce papers, has God’s

goodness changed somehow?

I immediately went to Scripture and spent some time doing a

word study on “good”. Let’s just say, the Bible has a lot of

“good” in it. Using the King James Version, Bible Gateway

found more than 700 references.

The first thing I noticed was that God is the ultimate judge of

what is good. He was the first one to declare something as

good when, in Genesis 1, He called creation into being.

Before we can label a person or situation good, we have to

look to God. And if that’s the case, then we need to look at

what God’s definition of good is. I’m sure it encompasses many

things, but here’s what I’ve learned thus far.