God is Always Good by Joselin Nunez

God is so good. The more I learn about Jesus I see his grace in everything, even the little things and how he turns everything good.

My mom was raised in Ecuador. Her parents co-parented. When she alternated households with my grandma, a single mom of 7 kids, food was the #2 or #3 priority on her list. The #1 priority was shelter and safety. When my grandma couldn’t afford meat, rice and everything that can be thrown in, was the meal for the day. Even the cocolon was used for the next day’s meal. I'm sure these weren’t comforting times for grandma and my mom most likely got sick of eating the same meal every day.

Before my mom washes the pot of rice she always saves the cocolon for me (scorched, thin crust rice at the bottom of the pot.) She saves it in a container for me to combine with potato fries and salsa (sliced onions and diced tomatoes drenched in lime juice). Ecuadorians’ main dishes always come with salsa as a side dish. Usually salsa includes more ingredients, but because of low finances in her household, this is what my mom grew up eating.

But I, on the other hand, obsess and eat this dish by choice and not out of survival as mom did. I crave this dish constantly and there’s a joy that comes as mom and I prepare it together. I get to hear and learn about mom’s childhood and stories of her mom. Hearing about my mom’s past helps me understand who she is because of what she experienced and was taught. Communicating with her helped heal our past wounds and I now do my best to treat her as an image bearer – a bearer of the image of God – and not just my mom. I used to hold her to a higher standard because of her role in my life.

You may ask what this has to do with God. God turns everything good, even what man makes for evil. Proverbs 16:4 says the Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. What my family has had to endure some may say God allowed. How could God love us when there's so much evil in the world, like children dying from hunger?

But God didn’t cause this, sin did. In Genesis 1, the very first thing the Bible tells us is that God is the creator. John 1:3 states, “through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. Genesis 1:31 states, “God saw all that he made, and it was GOOD”. He is holy and can only be Good. God’s intentions were for his children to not lack anything. No image bearer should go a day without eating due to a lack of finances. Especially now in a time which we mass produce food.

God loved my grandma, my mom, and He loves me. In getting to know Him I see how He turned a bad time and memory in my mom’s life into good quality time with me.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in John 9 when Jesus heals a blind man. Before healing the man, Jesus’ disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus replies in (verse?) 3 “neither this man nor his parents sinned,” this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

I have never asked my mom why my grandparents were always low on finances. I’ve always assumed living in a third world country must be hard. But God has revealed to me that neither low finances, or what man has made for evil, is of matter. I believe that some things happen for the Glory of God. God is always good.

We don’t have to wait to see it in big miracles. Jesus’ grace is sufficient and in getting to know Him you begin to see His goodness in everything. I look forward to the day when there is no confusion and all is understood. Jesus is worth knowing, and yes God is always good, even in cocolon.