You're Not Good . . . Yet

 

I've been doing some thinking about the second day of creation (as presented in Genesis 1:6-8) and some research to try to understand what happens then (I don’t really get what separating waters from waters means).  In my research it was pointed out that the second day is the only day that isn’t “good”.  Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s not really the days, but the creations that are called good, but either way, God does not call anything good on the second day.

Why? 

Some people say that God did not call the parting of the water from the water good because it was division and God hates division. It seemed obvious to me pretty quickly that He didn’t hate what He had done on the second day (or else why would He have done it) and He especially doesn’t have anything against division in general (Matthew 10:34-35 comes to mind, I'm sure you can think of others), so there must have been more to it than what I was able to find in my research. 

As I thought about the question, I realized that there’s only thing with which God worked on two separate days.  He worked with the light on the first day, the grass on the third, the sun, moon and stars on the fourth, the birds and water animals on the fifth and the land animals and people on the sixth.  But, he worked with the water on both the second day and on the third.  That’s two days of working with the water.  So, at the end of the second day, he wasn’t done.  He still had more to do with the water on the third day.

It seems that God will not call something good until He's done working with it.  Even Jesus Himself seemed uncomfortable having this label applied to Him before He had finished His work on the Earth (Matthew 19:17). Judgment never comes before the end.

If you have ever felt like God never calls you good, it's probably because your not. . . yet.  As long as remain in this life, as long as we're still awaiting the great and judgement day, we're not good.  We're still in the middle the the division with ourselves.  Even though division may be necessary, that doesn't make it fun, and it might not feel good.  It might not feel good until after the gathering on the third day (Genesis 1:9-10).

I'm sure there's a lot more for me to learn about the creation (I definitely have more questions), but I'm grateful to have discovered that God has inserted a little reminder for me that there is a time for scattering and time for gathering.  I am grate that God has gathered and continues to direct the work of gathering and to know that he will until everything is "very good." (Genesis 1:31)