GOD IS GOOD—ALL THE TIME

FRIDAY AUGUST 21

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Ps 34:8 NKJV

There’s an old African folktale about a king and his friend. In every circumstance, the king’s friend had a saying: “This is good.” One day they were out hunting. The friend loaded the firearm for the king, and he fired it. But it exploded, blowing off the king’s thumb. As was his habit, the friend said, “This is good,” to which the king replied, “This is not good,” and had his friend thrown in prison. A year later, the king was out hunting without his friend when he was captured by cannibals. The king was taken back to their village and tied at the stake. He thought to himself, “This is not good.” But just before lighting the fire, one of the cannibals noticed that the king’s thumb was missing. According to tribal tradition, they could never eat anyone who wasn’t whole, so they untied the king and let him go. When the king realized that his missing thumb spared his life, he immediately thought of his friend whom he’d sent to prison. He said to his friend, “You were right. It is good that my thumb was blown off. I’m sorry for sending you to jail. This is not good.” To which his friend said, “No, this is good.” The king still didn’t understand. “What do you mean, this is good? I sent my best friend to jail for a year!” The friend insisted, “This is good. If I hadn’t been in jail, I would have been out hunting with you, and my thumb’s not missing!” So the word for you today is: God is good—all the time.