While running I was listening to a Gungor song, and the lyric that captivated me was “All praises to the One who made it all and finds it beautiful.” As I imagined Jesus, coming to earth, I considered what it meant that he found everything beautiful. We all see things in creation that we consider terrible, ugly, even horrifying. But Jesus knew the truth that God had made everything perfectly and never doubted that truth. No matter what he witnessed of the impact of sinful choices by his fellow humans, he saw God’s truth and purpose and believed. He was grateful for all that there was and all that he experienced just as God tells us to be.
It was as I meditated on that in my last mile of running that I wondered if sin was nothing more than simply doubting the beauty of God’s creation and the truth of God’s purposes. Sin is simply believing a lie – any lie that falls short of God’s glory – the truth of Who He IS.
Isn’t that what Adam and Eve did? They doubted God’s word to them about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and decided that He must have been mistaken or that God was trying to trick them. They decided they must know better than God, or at least that Satan must know better than God. They doubted God at His word.
I began to think about areas of my life where I don’t see beauty. I began to think about things for which I was not grateful. And I asked God if there were areas where I doubted Him at His word.
Are there areas in your life where you don’t find beauty? God saw all that He made and saw that it was good. And when He created you and me He saw that it was very good. Do you doubt God’s goodness? Where? Why? Are there areas where you do not believe that what He has said is true? Ask Him to show you places where you fail to see beauty or doubt God’s faithfulness and ask Him for new vision! Ask God to show you His Kingdom – that it would come to your life and your home just as it is in Heaven.
Enjoy Crags and Clay.