Already Very Good

Open your phone for five minutes and you'll hear a dozen opinions about what a strong woman is supposed to look like. Be tougher. Be softer. Do it all. Do less. Sunday's message named that noise out loud, and then it did something refreshingly simple: it went back to page one of the Bible. That's where we're headed this week. Not to the latest hot take, but to Genesis 1, where God himself is doing the talking. And even though Sunday focused on women, this passage belongs to all of us, men and women alike.

Read verses 26 through 31 slowly, like you've never seen them before. God says, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.' Then in verse 27: 'So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.' Look at what's missing. There's no résumé. Nobody had to earn a spot or pass a test first. The man and the woman simply show up, and they're already carrying something of God himself. Then in verse 28, God blesses them and hands them a job: fill the earth and take care of it. He gives that job to both of them, together. Think about what an image is. Your reflection in a mirror isn't you, but it shows what you look like. That's what people are in this world: living pictures of what God is like. The woman at the grocery store, the coworker you can't stand, the kid melting down in your living room, and you. All of us carry it.

Now notice the line in verse 31 that's easy to skim past. 'God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.' On the day he finished making people, God didn't say 'good enough' or 'let's see how this goes.' He stepped back like an artist looking at a finished painting and said, very good. Here's why that matters. Most of us carry a different starting line in our heads. Maybe it's 'I'm only worth what I get done.' Or 'I'm only okay when people approve of me.' Or 'I've made too many mistakes for God to be glad about me.' Those voices can be loud, but they weren't there on day six. On day six, God looked at his people and was delighted.

That's the starting line for this whole week: not what's wrong with you, not what you still have to prove, but what God said about you before you did a single thing. Over the next four days we'll dig into what that means. For today, read the passage one more time out loud, and let the words 'very good' land on you personally.