As a parent, it is crazy to think of the influence you have on your children. Crazy good and sometimes crazy scary, am I right?
I read something the other day stating how your children view you is often how they first view God. For example, if you’re mostly kind and loving, that’s how they’ll first think of God. Or if you’re short-tempered and often grumpy, then that’s what they think God is like.
That’s a very humbling thought.
We all want to be good to our children and those we love the most. But even if we don’t always perfectly show goodness to those around us, the fact still remains that God is always good. And He is always good to us.
Jesus assured us of this in Matthew 7:11. “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (NLT).
We fail at goodness a lot, and it’s clear that our world doesn’t get it quite right either (that may be an understatement). But God never stops being good, and He never stops being good to us.
I love the song by Bethel Music called “The Goodness of God.” There is a line in the bridge that repeats over and over: “Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me.” I love that line, and it creates such a visual in my mind. Running is so active, and running after something takes determination and perseverance. (Go to listen to that song here!)
This is such an amazing picture of God’s love and the determination He has to shower goodness on us.
But it also paints the picture of a chase. If something is running after us, how does it ever catch us?
Well, I can think of two ways. First of all, the person running after me must run faster so that He eventually overtakes me. There are moments when God definitely overtakes us. Hopefully we’ve all had those moments when God’s goodness just overwhelms us, when we are just suddenly struck by the beauty of creation or when we mightily sense His presence through worship.
The other way God’s goodness can catch us is if we stop, wait for it and receive it.
Because of this pandemic, we are living in a time of slow down. Many of us have experienced it physically, emotionally, socially and even economically. But we can still know that God is good. If we want to consistently experience the goodness of God, we must slow down and be aware of it.
We’ve found ourselves being more still, but have we stopped to notice God’s goodness? Have we slowed down and let His goodness catch up to us?
This is a preaching-to-myself moment. I’ve slowed down, but I haven’t been doing the best of noticing the goodness that is right in front of me. Luckily, I, and we, have time to work on this.
This week, let’s slow down, on purpose, and notice the goodness of God as it rushes to meet us, for He is always good. Let’s get to the point where we can proclaim like King David, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life...” (Psalm 23:6a, NIV).
Photo by Lisa Verena Pape on Unsplash
