When God Said "Very Good"

May 15, 2023

God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31 NCV

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:13-14 NLT

Most of us have enough perfectionistic desires in us that we want what we do and who we are to be good. We don’t look at ourselves and automatically say, “Beautiful! Handsome! Perfect!” We may feel proud of something we have done or accomplished, but often we allow the joy to be quickly drained by comparing ourselves with someone else and their efforts.

But God has perfect perception and judgment. When He created humans in the garden, He pronounced them unequivocally “very good.” Man wasn’t very good and woman simply good. They were both very good, and that means they perfectly fulfilled the design He had in mind.

That wasn’t just for the original humans. It’s for all of us. David recognized that. As he talked intimately with his Father, he said in amazement, “YOU handmade me! Thank you! I am marvelous and complex. You knew my life—every day of it—before I was even born. You watched me when I was being formed, and you still do. Your thoughts about me are so very precious—and you think about me all the time. Your thoughts about me are so many they can’t even be counted. You watch over me when I sleep, and when I wake up, you are still with me.”

David grasped the reality of his worth, because if the Creator God felt that way about him, he was indeed valuable. He was very good (Psalm 139:13-18).

His response was to invite the God who loved him most, saw his true worth, and wanted him to be fulfilled completely to search his heart and know every single one of his anxious thoughts. He asked God to point out anything in him that offended or hurt God, and then lead him in the path of everlasting life (Psalm 139:23-24). What a valuable response!

Have you ever sincerely complimented someone and then had them blow it off like you were foolish or disingenuous? Frustrating, isn’t it? Can you imagine how it feels to your Father/Creator to have your anxious thoughts criticize what He calls “very good”? Ask Him to help you see yourself as He sees you. It’s the path to “life everlasting.”

• Father, I am wonderfully complex; very good. Help me see it and live it.