goodness.

Last night I came to a conclusion. I texted a good friend:

"The moon is orange tonight."
"That's how it was the other night! I loved it."
"Yeah, I love nighttime."
"Me too. But my favorite is in the summer around 6 or 7 o'clock on the beach."
"That's the best time to be alive."
"You're right."
"Life is good."

Life is good. What a flippant little phrase we just toss around. It's on bumper stickers, hats, t-shirts. But last night, after I texted that statement, I thought about what was just said. And I came to two conclusions.

One: Life IS good. "There is only One who is good." Jesus said it himself. "For by Him all things were created. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Paul said it. Now, if we agree that "all things" encompasses the scope of life, we're getting somewhere. All things exist through the One who is good; therefore, life must always be good. Not always preferable, but always good. Just like getting a cut cleaned out--not always preferable, but always good.

Two: I made another pretty big statement just one text before that. "That's the best time to be alive." When I said that, I had not yet thought of everything in the paragraph above. But I thought about it afterwards. God is the same, today yesterday and forever. He never changes. If I can stand on the shoreline, mid-July, watching th color transform into a radiant canvas of lights, and conclude that it is, in fact, the best time to be alive, I should just as quickly jump to that conclusion as I am driving through downtown Chattanooga on a raining Monday afternoon. Why? Because, the same Lord that is on His throne on that mid-summer's evening is on His throne on that rainy, dismal day. Though our circumstances may be altered, God is constant. Therefore, I say it is always good to be alive.