It’s All Good…Because God is With Us

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“It’s all good.”

Some people say this just to fill empty spaces in conversations, but for others it is a confession of faith.  Yet how, in the face of life’s endless daily brokenness, can anyone possibly say this?

Is it even true?

When disease, depression, or death creep into our lives, there is this burning question, “Does God know what he is doing?  Is it really all good?”

Now, in one sense it is not good at all.  When God made this world, he made it good, even very good.  Since then, we humans have made a sad mess of everything, with the eager encouragement of our ‘dearest enemy,’ Satan. In that sense, nothing is good.

But here’s an amazing thing.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us! 

That short phrase sings about…

-Jesus, coming to earth on the first Christmas, being human with us and for us.

-the great creator God, putting on an ordinary human body and limiting himself to ordinary human psychology, for our sake.

-the Lord of the universe, tucked into a feed trough, suffering through temptations, despairing in the garden of Gethsemane, and dying for our sins.

But why?  Why did this all happen?  Why did God do this for us?  So that life will, once again, be good.  He came, that first Christmas,

-to give us a loving relationship with the God we spurned,

-to break our relationship with Satan,

-to heal our relationships with those all around us,

-and just to be with us.

And therefore he understands our lives.  He understands what is it is to be human, sick, sad, struggling with temptation, and desperately alone.  He knows what it is like to ask “Why, God?” for he asked the ultimate ‘why’ question on the cross, the one we will never need to ask, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

That is why, no matter what happens in our lives, “It is all good.”  God is with us.  He understands us and loves us with more compassion than we can ever imagine.  He cares more for us than we can dream of.  He came to earth for us; he died for us; and now he is preparing a place for us.

So, yes, it’s all good.  It really and truly is all good.

This Christmas, whether you feel happy or full of sadness, I pray that you will be able to understand that somehow, in God’s incomprehensible way, “It is all good.”

May God bless you and your family as you celebrate the first Christmas, anticipate Christ’s final coming, and live thankfully in the space between.

This is part of a series of occasional meditations about daily life, Bible readings, and our pastor’s Sunday sermons based, in this case, on John 1:14. 

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For more encouragement, visit Coffee for Your Heart, Raising Homemakers, Works for Me Wednesday, Mom to Mom Monday, Monday’s Musings, Missional Weekend, and R&R Wednesdays.