Good Before It Was Useful to You

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

Genesis 1:31

Read Genesis 1. Focus on verses 20 through 31. Before breakfast, you may already be evaluating the day. Will the weather interfere? Is the house functioning? Are the people around you helping or slowing things down? It is easy to encounter the world mainly as something that either serves our plans or gets in their way. Genesis opens with a more generous way of seeing. God speaks, separates, fills, and gives life. Again and again, He sees that what He has made is good. The creatures have value within His creation before a human being calculates what they might provide. Humanity enters that good world as a recipient of life, blessing, and responsibility. People are made in God's image, male and female. Their dignity is given at the beginning. It is not awarded later to those who prove productive, attractive, clever, or convenient. Being God's image bearers gives human rule a serious moral shape. We are entrusted with care within a world that belongs to its Maker. We are not its creators, and our desires do not determine the worth of everything we encounter. This matters in the small evaluations we make every day. A child is more than the interruption they bring to a task. An older neighbor is more than the assistance they require. A person doing a quiet job is more than the speed with which they complete our request. It also changes how we regard ordinary created things. Food, water, daylight, living creatures, and the human body can become so familiar that we notice them only when something goes wrong. Gratitude begins by recognizing that their goodness does not depend on novelty. The chapter does not deny that life now contains suffering or that choices require judgment. The coming chapters will describe the world's brokenness without softening it. Here, at the beginning, we receive the truth that brokenness is not the original definition of creation. Try meeting one part of today's world without immediately asking what it can do for you. Notice a person's face, the meal before you, or the light coming through the window. Let attention come before evaluation. A new year need not begin only with plans for improvement. It can begin with acknowledgment. There is goodness here that you did not manufacture, and there are people whose worth you are called to recognize before deciding whether they fit your expectations. Put It into Practice Give one ordinary person or created gift your attentive appreciation today. Name its value without turning the moment into a judgment about what you receive from it.

Whom do you tend to evaluate mainly by how easily they fit into your plans?

Creator God, teach me to recognize goodness before measuring usefulness. Restore gratitude for ordinary gifts and respect for every person bearing Your image. Let my plans begin within a world I receive from You rather than one I imagine belongs to me. Amen.