Better Than Good, Part I
Better Than Good, Part I
Genesis 1: 1 – 2
Genesis 1: 26 – 31
February 1, 2026
Did God take a day off? Does God just not care? Are there so many things going on across the cosmos that God is busy elsewhere? Or perhaps, doesn’t care? Are there things that happen that are simply bigger than what God can, or wants, to handle?
Where was God when my father was killed? Where was God when cancer was diagnosed or the final therapy was deemed of no use? Where was God when my ACL snapped or when the school around which I had planned my entire future said, “We don’t have room for you,”?
“Where was God?,” the mother of a two-year-old asked. “Where was God?,” the mother of an eleven-year-old asked. “Where was God?,” the adult children of a parent taken at far too young of an age ask.
Where was God?
In all of my years of ministry, it is the most difficult of questions to answer because it is an overwhelming emotional question, filled with hurt and pain, anger and fear. It is an emotional question and a logical, reasoned, theologically informed answer just doesn’t always cut it.
But we need an answer, don’t we? We need an answer when we are being blown to and fro and the simple, formulaic teachings of our faith don’t seem adequate for the complexity, for the difficulty, for the pain that we face.
We have been talking about a God that is big; about a God that is close. We have been talking about the incomprehensible enormousness and power of God while we have also been talking about the nearness of a God who knows our innermost thoughts and concerns. Knows….. and cares.
And yet the size and proximity of God doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about the nature of that God. Oh, we get some profound hints, but when the pain hits we need more than hints, don’t we?
Come back with me to our first lesson, from Genesis 1, this time reading from a slightly different translation – the NRSV Updated Edition.
“When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
That “wind from God” is a different way of describing the Holy Spirit. Do you get the visual picture? Over the chaos of unformed Creation hovers the Holy Spirit. Not consumed by the chaos. Not rendered impotent by the chaos. Certainly not smaller than the impact of chaos. No. Over….. transcending….. ultimately transforming the chaos is the Holy Spirit.
Hold that thought – that God ultimately transforms the chaos – and come back with me again to our second lesson, also from that same chapter of Genesis, chapter 1. At the highpoint of Creation, Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus tells us, God acts. Reading from The Message translation:
“God spoke: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature
so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.’ God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female.
God blessed them: ‘Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.’ Then God said, ‘I’ve given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth and every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.’
And there it was. God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning - Day Six.”
I want you to connect two thoughts – one from a verse in our first text, and another in the final. God created human beings to reflect the nature of God. And THAT was good, VERY good.
But so was the rest of Creation. After every constructive act – and it doesn’t matter if you believe that this was done over a period of six days or 6 billion years – at the completion of every creative act, including ours, God looked out on Creation and pronounced it good. Very Good.
After chaos came order. After the storm came calm. After the darkness of the night came sunrise and light. Because God transcends the chaos. God cares about the effects of darkness on God’s humanity. Because God….. is good, so very, very good.
Listen to the descriptive passages from Scripture.
· “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4).
· “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him: (Ps. 18:30).
· “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
· “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
Creation testifies to the goodness of God. God transcends the storms that might assail us and yet cares enough to enter the storm and calm the waves. We experience the nearness and the goodness of God in a million different ways – big and small; but when the storm hits; when darkness falls; when we feel caught up in a chaos that we didn’t see coming it is hard to see beyond our pain, beyond our disappointment, to see God.
Think with me for a moment – big picture. God created all that is good. God, in the Holy Spirit, hovered over the chaos of unformed Creation and brought forth order, and goodness and relationship. God finished God’s creative work, looked out over the expanse of the Cosmos, and said, “Wow, this is good. This just how I want it.”
But, even in the midst of all that goodness, God’s created people thought they knew more than the Creator. Sin – dysfunction and rebellion – entered human existence at our invitation. As a result, we live in a broken world. A place where untimely death occurs. A place where cancer rages. A place where our bodies break down.
And yet, because God is bigger than the chaos of sin; because God is close and actually, really cares; because God is good – so very, very good – God sent Jesus, not to punish, but to love; not to condemn, but to redeem. God hovered over the chaos of human brokenness and brought forth life – eternal life – in Jesus. Out of fractured chaos, God is still providing meaning and purpose, because that is just who God is. Goodness.
In just a few minutes, we will sing our benediction, asking to be kept in safety and love, and then we will leave….. and have a choice. Do we just keep going out into the parking lot? Do we just keep on going, perhaps with our minds running back to the rat race that awaits us? Do we go back out into chaos….. or do we decide to turn left into Gard Hall to explore the potential goodness that awaits us there?
One of the answers of God to the chaos that assails us is the goodness of being with God’s people - is the goodness of being with those who know what it is like to lose loved ones; who know what it is like to sit in a doctor’s office and get bad news; who know that it is possible to not let the chaos of life defeat you.
One of the answers of God to the chaos of life that assails us is to be reminded of the goodness and purpose of God as we study together – bringing our true selves, our authentic selves, our broken selves to God’s word that provides fuel, comfort, and perseverance for our journey of life.
One of the answers of God to the chaos of life that assails us are opportunities for us to find ourselves once again in service to God’s people. Service moves us beyond ourselves and gives us the chance to be God’s answer to the difficulties that others might be experiencing.
As Batterson writes: “There is a God who gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.1
Victor Frankl, a survivor of four difference concentration camps, including Auschwitz, wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by a lack of meaning.”2 God provides meaning, purpose, and relationships that allows us to transcend the storms of life. God is just that great, just that close, and just that good. Amen.
1 Mark Batterson, A Million Little Miracles (Multnomah Press, 2024), pg. 175.
2 Daisy Grewal, “A Happy Life May Not Be A Meaningful Life,” Scientific American, February 18,
2014. Quoted by Batterson, A Million Little Miracles (Multnomah Press, 2024), pg. 175.