In the book of Genesis, we repeatedly here the phrase describing what God created as “good.” When we hear the word “good,” we often think of that as meaning, “Well…something is ok, but it’s not excellent or even perfect.” But when God created all, it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), meaning that it was perfect—the Fall into sin hadn’t yet corrupted.
Although we now live in a world fallen into sin and remain plagued by sin’s effect (Romans 8), God continues to provide us with good. He certainly provides for our physical needs, as we confess in the First Article: “I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, cattle and all I own, and all that I need to keep my body and life….” James summarized that truth: “Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights…” (James 1:17).
But most of all, God graciously provided and provides for us spiritually! He sent Jesus to solve our worst problem of sin and to conquer sin’s death consequence. He provides His word and sacraments to bless us spiritually. Those truths remain the Christian’s quiet confidence to live and to share while living in a sin-fallen world with its uncertainties.