DAY 121 - GOOD IS BETTER THAN PERFECT
KEATON TUCKER, YA GROUPS TEAM LEAD
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” Genesis 1:31
Wait a second.
God just created the mountains… and fish and birds, oceans, trees, and everything that makes life wonderful, and the best he can come up with is “it’s good”? Not magical, wonderful, awesome, or any other adjective we might use to describe creation. God didn’t even use the word perfect or ideal.
Just “good”.
Actually, good is better than perfect. The idea of perfect or ideal came from the Greeks. They were the founders of the philosophy of perfection and believed it could be attained through rigorous study and mastery of the body through physical activity. They even had schools, called Paideia, that were supposed to bring out this perfection in its students. Our modern idea of perfection in the west comes from the greeks. For the Greek people, it was something attainable and worth striving after.
The Hebrew language also has a word for perfect but it is much different than the Greek word. Yet both are translated as “perfect” in English. The Hebrew word translated as perfect means “whole, complete” but does not carry the connotations of ideal or perfect perfection. It shows up in Psalm 19 “the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul”. The law of the Lord is complete, it’s whole.
Now stay with me here.
In the Greek idea of perfection, the one you and I were given whether we wanted it or not, it was something attainable and worth striving for. It carries with it the idea and belief that there are a series of steps to follow to attain perfection or the perfect life. And this belief also led to widespread comparison and measurement in all people of the west. The reason you and I compare ourselves to others is that we have the idea of perfection from the Greeks embedded in us. Unfortunately, that kind of perfection has an endpoint. Once it’s attained, it’s over. It is not ongoing.
What about that creation story? Why didn’t God say it was perfect?
Because for something to be perfect from God’s point of view is for it to be complete and creation is not complete. Creation is ongoing.
God made land.
Land takes seeds and turns them into plants and trees. Plants and trees make more seeds that fall into the ground to make more plants and trees. Animals eat those plants and create fertilizer for the ground to make more plants and trees.
And on and on and on it goes.
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