The Goodness of God

I have been overwhelmed lately with God’s flagrant goodness towards me. My cup indeed runneth over. It’s almost odd—my life was going very well already, especially with my all important decision to finish my degree. That was a huge gift. And even though I’m not progressing as fast as I’d like to, I am progressing in my reading. Also, it seemed that socially my life was going well: I had good friends active in my life and also people that I am slowly getting to know better that I would like to become good friends.

Then, out of the blue, God apparently decides He hasn’t actually overwhelmed me with blessings lately, so He brings another good gift into my life. I guess this shouldn’t surprise me (the goodness of God, that is—probably my whole readership knows that the actually event surprised me very much), but it’s one thing to know something in theory, it’s completely different to experience it.

I think flagrant goodness is very much a part of God’s character. Not simply goodness, but excessive and outrageous goodness. Have you ever looked at the sky on a clear sunny day in the middle of summer? Doesn’t it seem excessively blue?? I don’t mean in a bad way, but in a wow, I’m amazed at the intense bright blueness of the sky. Then, of course, there are all those examples from the Bible (like the people Jesus healed) and from the lives of people we know.

I always try to imagine what it must have felt like, after living for one’s whole life as a cripple, being suddenly made whole. Instantly, it would be like stepping into an entirely new universe, but one lovingly familiar. You would love your friends more if you could walk (or run), unaided, to their houses. You would love your little thatched cottage more when you could enter and leave it on a mere whim. Eating could be an excessively joyful event if you could now use both hands, or sit up in a chair like everyone else, or even cook your own dinner. There is something truly fabulous about having very ordinary events become suddenly momentous and joyful.

I know that this shiny feeling is temporary, and that’s probably just as well. My friends can only be expected to endure my giddiness for so long. But I’m glad that for a little while at least, I can be overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s excessive and flagrant goodness.