I made a chocolate bundt cake awhile back. When it came out of the oven and cooled, I flipped it upside down onto the cake platter. Most of the cake fell out while half of it remained in the baking pan. I scooped out what I could and tried to piece it all back together with icing. And while this cake tasted good it was not, in whole, very good. In the creation of the cake, I missed a wide section of the pan when spraying it with non-stick cooking spray. I managed to make it work and look okay, but it was not what I originally had planned for it to be.

This was the example I gave to my children this morning as we were gathered around for our family worship time. We had just talked about God’s creation. We read over how we were created (male and female in His image) and how God created everything else….and how He looked upon all of His creation and saw that it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

The divine creation of all things was real and it was perfection. 

I need them to know, in this world of facades and broken up pieces, that The Creator did not make any mistakes. His creation was very good…not just broken-cake-covered-in-icing good. For when they catch a glimpse of His perfect creation, they can catch a glimpse of the cross.

Because now? The world is falling into pieces. The wars rage amongst the human race – against each other and within themselves. The oceans stir violently, the earth rumbles in rage, and destructive calamity is making its mark across the whole of creation. A fight for self-identity drags us away from the only image we are to bear; the call to die to self becomes a most difficult endeavor.

My kids see and they can understand broken; They live it and they live in it. Evidence of a curse so deep and profound that it is woven into everything and everyone, it is antithetical to the world that was once seen as very good. I tell them, “The cake that was once perfect is now smashed, messy, and fragmented”.

I take them to the beauty and perfection of creation again. We say the verse over and over – “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good…” (Genesis 1:31 HCSB). 

What could possibly restore what is so deeply tainted and broken from what was once “very good”? My own heart is taking this in and the wonder of the cross is being shed across it. I am being reminded as I tell my children how the marred masterpiece is being made new through the obedient sacrifice of flawless perfection.

The God whose creation is withering away in death, is taking back what is His. In fact, He had a plan from the very beginning on how to fix what He knew was going to break. He has been and is continuing in the process of making all things new. One day, His masterpiece will once again beat with full and complete life. All brokenness will be gone and restoration will be all-encompassing and finished.

I look over at my children. I would all but fail if I don’t communicate it to them, if I don’t make it abundantly clear, that the work of redemption is for them, too. 

We, also, are part of His creation (Psalm 139). The cross is not only where the world finds its hope to be made new, it is where WE find our hope in being made new. Our inner most being has this hope to take hold of and claim as its own. We can behold the power of redemption and complete restoration that is being offered from the Saviour on a cross…and we can accept it. We can let the healing power of Jesus flow over us and through us, binding up our tattered and broken selves. Through Christ, we can have the hope that the complete and “very good” perfection is part of our future, too.

I gather my children; I pray with them. I thank God for the hope that is Jesus and I pray that hope over their hearts. I thank God for what was once very good, so we can look forward to the promise of the very good that is to come.