Tov: Generating New Life
“The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:12)
At the end of each day of Creation, Elohim paused.
As He beheld the work of his hands - contemplating the moment with an eternal presence - He daily came to the same conclusion: “it was good.”
In Hebrew, the word for “good” or “goodness” is Tov.
While yes, Tov can address the idea of goodness on a morality level, more foundational to its meaning is the essential outworking of purposefulness and abundance. It’s an alignment of our design (and the design of all Creation) with our purpose, as it is our purpose with our design.
Tov is generative - it is life that brings forth life and glory that brings forth glory - a kind of God-like pleasance that can’t help but bear more of itself.
Consider those things which Adonai described as good: light, land, water, sky, air, plant- and animal-life, days and nights, the Sun and the Moon. He wasn’t so much making an ethical statement about their rightness and wrongness as He was declaring that all of creation displays “his invisible attributes,… his eternal power and [his] divine nature” (Romans 1:20).
As it is, the infinitely expanding, life-giving character of God is made manifest at a cellular level in all of creation, and that is something truly good.
Photosynthesis is tov as trees receive water and sunshine and carbon dioxide and use them to produce life-giving oxygen.
Pollination is tov as bees consume the pollen and nectar of flowers, supporting plant reproduction in the process.
The Moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth is tov as it helps stabilize our climate and seasons, bringing greater balance to potential disarray.
Goodness was rich in Eden, but, when humans were made, the Maker looked at his craftsmanship and - for the first time - deemed it as not only good, but “very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
As image-bearers, we would also be called to reproduce - to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28) - but additionally to order, cultivate, and protect it. (See previous post on “Working for Creation” here)
At essence, a massive part of our very “good-ness” is the fact that we not only participate in bringing new life directly, but that - in all things - we are invited (and commanded) to co-create and steward and vivify all that surrounds us - even indirectly.
We may not (in ourselves) be able to perform photosynthesis, but it is in our power to support the environment in such a way that brings order (rather than chaos) to the water and air and soil and Sun.
In the same way, there is much we are powerless to do in and of ourselves - and ultimately it is Yeshua who brings forth every form of life - but in all things we are meant to see and name and foster what is tov, asking God where life is absent and where it can be continually drawn out and grown.
Everyday and every moment is an opportunity to speak and steward life.
It is tov to plant and garden and connect with the ground.
It is tov to encourage environmentally-sound practices, at home and from large corporations.
It is tov to defend endangered species.
It is tov to protect life rather than to take it.
It is tov to create art and businesses and spaces for work and rest and play and worship.
It is tov for spouses to make babies, and to foster and adopt at-risk children.
It is tov to advocate for oppressed and marginalized peoples, in support of their flourishing.
It is tov to seek healing and wholeness and life to the full.
It is tov to speak a word of encouragement, gratitude, and compassion.
It is tov to apologize and forgive and reconcile - to preserve the life of a relationship.
It is tov to love our enemies, to spring forth kindness instead of hate.
Or God “is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38), who through Yeshua “became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45)
May we too learn to walk in the good and purposeful way that gives life.
