Lessons from my son

Matthew and Stephanie have a new nightly bedtime ritual. Every night Stephanie reads him a story, a passage of Scripture, and then they sing a song. Last night's song was "God is So Good". After practicing for a few minutes, Matthew wanted me to come and listen to him sing. It was probably the most precious moment in his two years of life. I struggled to choke back the tears.

I thought about that moment for the rest of the evening. I even struggled to sleep, which never happens, thinking about the impact of that moment. The question that kept rolling around in my head was "When did I begin to doubt the goodness of God?" I know that God is good or at least that I am supposed to believe that He is good. But I also know that at times the reality and difficulty of life makes that truth hard to embrace with great affection. Maybe it is just me, but there are times and moments in my life where I have struggled with the concept that "God is good all the time and all the time God is good". I know it to be true and I know that is what Scripture teaches, but in those moments I struggled to make the realities of life match up to the goodness of God.

I think that is why I am so thankful that my relationship with Christ is not dependent upon my ability to rationalize the mysteries of God. Matthew's simple faith reminded me that God is always good, whether I can reason out His goodness into the circumstances of my life or not. God is good, whether I choose to see it or choose to ignore it. And in the most difficult days, it is the goodness of God that grants me the strength to endure, the patience to wait, and the grace to press on. Because the alternative is that without God's goodness, I am crushed by the weight of things that I am unable bear alone and more importantly, as a follower of Christ, was never meant to bear alone. After all, it is the goodness of God and the love that overflows from the core of His nature that allowed Jesus to die in my place.

So, as my son learned last night and my soul echoes this morning,
"God is so good, God is so good,
God is so good, He's so good to me."