-Very Good-

Hanging on the walls in my parents’ house in Anderson are pictures of Charleston scenes, painted by Virginia Ginn. She is an extremely talented artist who happens to be a friend of the family. There are pictures of Rainbow Row, The Battery, and of the black ladies weaving reed baskets downtown. All of the paintings are personally signed by Virginia Ginn with a short note. My mom just loves those paintings, but you can ask her which piece of artwork is her favorite in the entire house, and she won’t point to any of her Charleston prints. She’ll take you to my brother Stephen’s room and show you a design that he drew for a billboard company in Columbia that won an award. She’ll take you to my room and show you a picture of a monkey hanging in a tree that I drew in Middle School. Are any of these created by masterful artists? Not really. Are they even any good? Well, Stephen’s is. So what’s the deal? Why are these sketches her favorite among a house full of beautiful paintings? She loves them so much because her kids made them. No matter what it looked like or how ugly it was, our artwork was always her favorite.

Your Father in heaven is the same way. He owns the whole world (literally), but the most important thing to Him is you. He has everything imaginable, but you are still His favorite. In Genesis 1, God created everything in the world and after it was done, “God saw that it was good” (v. 25). But then He made man. And after He did this, “God saw that it was very good” (v. 31). No matter what you look like, no matter how bad or ugly you may think your life is, you are still God’s favorite and He loves you. If you strive to imitate the life of Christ and make God your top priority, then at the end of the day God can look at the artwork that is your life and say, “it is very good.”

-Spending time in the Word-

“What can you say about a society that thinks God is dead and Elvis is alive?” -Irv Kupcinet

1. Read the Genesis account of creation in chapters 1 and 2. Notice the adjectives that God uses when describing each thing he created.

2. In Psalm 104, you can see the delight that God takes in His creation.

-Hiding the Word in your heart-

Memorize these verses as you continue to study the Word of God daily.

1. “I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” -Psalm 121:1-2

2. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15