God is good

Disdainfully, Rebecca threw the postcard with the inscription “God is good” into the wastepaper basket. Everything in her life had just gone down the drain, her relationship, job, flat. And now, of all times, there was this promotional postcard with the pious slogan in her mailbox. Was someone making fun of her?

But no matter how hard she tried not to think about the slogan, she simply could not. Because deep in her heart Rebecca knew that the card was telling the truth. A few weeks ago she would have even signed her name to the slogan. But lately, she felt so left alone by God. Didn’t he see what a mess she was in? Why didn’t he help her? He, the God who can make everything possible.

Hesitantly, Rebecca reached for her nib and took a sheet of paper out of the drawer. It had been a while since she had done calligraphy for the last time. She found it unspeakably difficult to write “God is good” on the paper.

At the moment, she could better identify with the written question “Is God good?”.

“Everything has its time,” a quiet voice whispered inside her.

“When is God good?” she wrote under the first two sentences.

“On time,” it whispered inside her.

“Can I count on it?” she asked aloud into the silence of the night.

Rebecca’s gaze fell on the very first sentence she had written with difficulty. So simple, so plain. She desperately wanted to believe in it again.

Slowly, the joy of her reawakened creativity gripped her. She wrote “God is good” in different ways: bold and italic, in upper and lower case, energetic and plain, over and over again. Until the words had milled themselves deep into her heart. Until her head sank exhausted onto the tabletop.

Something stuck to her fingers. “What a bummer!” When Rebecca opened her eyes fully she realised that the ink she had used to write the last “God is good” had not only spread over her fingers during the night, but also on and beside the paper. She quickly removed the ink on the table with a damp cloth. Only afterwards she took the time to examine her night’s work.

“God is good” was written there in twenty different fonts. And to her surprise Rebecca found out that the ink blots had simply blacked out her questions. Behind the last “God is good” there was also a little blob. God is good. Full stop.