See the Good.

My oldest daughter got me a coffee mug for Father’s Day. Second graders are notoriously short on cash and she knows I drink coffee. The mug was an obvious choice. A less obvious choice was the mug’s design. If you can imagine the kind of coffee mug a 7 year-old girl would select, you’re probably close: black and gray speckled ceramic on the outside, pink ceramic on the inside, a large pink butterfly with wings gloriously unfurled and shiny gold lettering commanding me to, “See the Good.”

It’s the thought that counts right?

Last week, she saw me drinking from it in the morning and asked, “Dad, do you like your mug?”

“I’m drinking out of it aren’t I?” I replied.

“I knew you’d love it,” she squealed. “When I saw it on the shelf, I knew I had to get it for you because you always try to see the good.”

If only I did…but the more I use that mug, the more I realize my little girl was onto something.

I think many of us have such a shallow definition of “goodness” that we lose all sense of its genuine power. In a world where our circumstances are often challenging, goodness is a shockingly positive quality that is deserving of all our desire, our work, our effort, our prayer, our time, and our attention.

The philosophers, from Aristotle to Aquinas, note “Goodness” as one of the Transcendentals. Goodness is vital to defining that central Christian virtue of Love (to will the good). Throughout the biblical narrative, “good” is used to describe the world God made, the kind of people he desires, the gifts he gives, and the hope set before us. Beyond that, good is a descriptor of God’s very own Nature.

When we see the Good in our everyday life, we see God at work. But this is the point at which I believe my daughter’s gift is so necessary for me. In the course of my normal life, I’m often too busy, too distracted, too worried to “see the good.” The mug is a reminder to slow down enough to acknowledge the good, appreciate it, give thanks for it, and honor it by living in accordance with it.

Remember, today is a new day and new opportunity to see goodness all around you. Not everything is good, and you may have to search a bit, but the Good is there. May we all have eyes to see the good today. And when we do, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”