Good

This week our Life Groups at Rabbit Creek Church gathered in homes to begin our seven-week study through The Ordinary Way. In keeping with that timing, I would like to share Chapter Three with you today.

Chapter Three—“Good. Period.”

I looked for it but to no avail, either in Genesis 1 or 2. Days one, four, and five receive a score of “good.” Day three claims double that. For whatever reason, day two misses out all together; quite the opposite of day six’s “very good.” I looked and found no “great,” “awesome,” “incredible,” or even “a step above.”

Good. Period.

In 1995, Chris Noonan, inspired by Dick King-Smith’s novel, brought to us the story of Babe. Not Ruth or a term of endearment. A pig. We see Babe corral the hapless herd of sheep and want to cry out, “Way to go!”, “Awesome!” or any cry of extreme approval. However, Farmer Hoggett, so well portrayed by James Cromwell, looks to his well-trained swine friend and declares, “That’ll do, pig; that’ll do.”

The Creator looked upon His creation and said, “That’ll do.” But you say, “That’s not enough. Can’t we add more flash, more pomp and circumstance?” No. Good. Period. “That’ll do.”

Perhaps our quest for more than good is part of the gross residue of sin. It’s the child bound and determined to please her father and the father for whom B+ marks failure. It’s the single blue ribbon not bringing enough satisfaction. It’s the midlife crisis when the husband now pursues a younger love. It’s the wife for whom a best effort at home repair receives a mere nod, if any expression of appreciation at all. The quest for more than good proves endless and disheartening. Remember day seven? After six days of imagination brought to life in vivid color, expansive skies, crawling creatures, and male and female images of God, the Artist, “rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

He rested. He saw that it was very good and knew that “that’ll do.”

Good. Period.

Goodman, Mark T. The Ordinary Way. Five Stones Press, 2019.

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