The Goodness of God

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6

“God, you’re so good. God, you’re so good. God, you’re so good, you're so good to me.”

I hear my youngest daughter singing it to her babies, putting them down for “naps.” And I’m holding back tears because this has been the soundtrack of the little years - I’ve sung this chorus to my girls thousands of times since my oldest daughter was born more than six years ago.

And I want more than anything for my girls to know that God is good: for them to believe it and feel it and know it in the depths of their bones. I want them to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). I want God’s goodness to be the theme song of their lives.

Even as I’ve sung about it daily, I’ve struggled at times to cling to God’s goodness. As human beings, our definitions of what is “good” often differ from God’s. We tend to rank things in worldly ways, fixing our eyes on gold and glory and worldly gains. We misunderstand and often misquote Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” We assume that “good” here refers to an easy, comfortable and predictable life - that our expectations will be met and the story of our actual lives will align with our dreams. This leaves us reeling when the “good” that God has for us comes through suffering, discomfort, unmet expectations and more - hard and holy things that form His goodness in us.

God’s goodness often looks like what we need instead of what we want. It involves God giving us the good gifts of His presence, His rest, and His Truth in the midst of less than ideal circumstances. It looks like Him forming us into His image, forging the Spirit of goodness in us - whatever it takes. Suffering leads to sanctification, pain leads to purity, battles lead to inner beauty. In His goodness, God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. He is more concerned with our spiritual thriving than our physical well being. The eternal always trumps the temporal when it comes to the goodness of God.

Even as we misunderstand God’s goodness, it continues to chase us (Psalm 23:6). From the Garden of Eden to Golgotha, from the resurrection until He comes again, God has been good and He will continue to be so. He is good in His nature, and He is good to His children personally. His goodness is like gravity - it is inevitable that it will fall on those who follow Him.

As we anticipate Easter, may we receive the goodness that God offers to us in all of its forms (the Cross of Christ and all the crosses that we are called to carry), and may His goodness glow through our lowly lives to a watching and wounded world.