Whether you are from a Christian, Jewish, or Muslim background (or any faith tradition interested in receiving a blessing wherever you can find one), the creation story found in the fist chapter of Genesis is a life-affirming gift for all people, whether you take the story literally or as powerful metaphor.

The Genesis 1 story invites us to believe that a creative, energetic, loving God is at the heart of our world and all creation. Amid the wonder of Gods creating word and the beauty of the created world, at the end of each day we are told that God surveyed all that had been called into being and said, very simply, It is good!

What a powerful statement! As the creative work unfolded, as each new aspect of the world and universe came into its own, as each creature and element first experienced its own existence, God observed it, admired it, and praised it as acceptable and desirable. This means, according to the story, that from the from the very beginning of creation we can claim the concept of original goodness, or as Episcopalian priest, scholar, and author Matthew Fox describes it, original blessing.

Wouldnt it be wonderful if that were the first concept we were taught in church or in Sunday School as children? How different might our world be if everyone were told, day after day - You are a child of God, created in the image of God, and you are good! instead of being told that we are inherently evil, forever tainted by original sin? How might we treat one another, and the rest of creation, if we believe we are good instead of evil?

There is a school of thought in psychology which theorizes that we become what we believe ourselves to be. If we are told from the very moment we are born that we are evil, originally tainted by sin and in need of redemption before we even take our first step, that has a powerful impact on our psyche and future behavior.

Christians, it seems, are uniquely familiar with the concept of original sin, derived from an Augustinian interpretation of the second and third chapters of Genesis, which forms the foundation of the traditional Western Christian theology of fall and redemption. From a very young age, most Christians are taught that God created man and woman, put them in the garden, and told them that they could do anything they wanted to as long as they never ate fruit from a particular tree. But temptation got the better of them, as first the woman chose to disobey, and then the man. Upon Gods learning of their disobedience, they were banished from the garden and forced to live outside of paradise, as a punishment for their sin.

But does this story completely negate the original blessing we receive from Genesis 1? And if not, how can we look at Genesis 2 and 3 through a different lens, the lens of original blessing from Genesis 1? Obviously the story of the Garden of Eden tells us a lot about human nature. It reveals our curiosity, even our rebellious possibilities. It illustrates the human phenomenon of exploring beyond our good judgment and reason, experimenting with our free will, desiring more than we need for our well being.

But are we compelled to infer that, because of this one event, we are essentially evil creatures? Does it necessarily follow that the prototypical Adam and Eve, in choosing to disobey God, are the archetype for humanity, and that we are all heirs of their original sin; that everyone born after them is tainted by their symbolic actions? Humans are capable of disobedience and sin, of course. We are all in need of repentance and forgiveness at certain times in our lives, certainly. But are we inherently evil and unacceptable from the outset? Is that the only possible conclusion to be reached from the Genesis story?

As the story is laid out, before the incident in the garden, before humans chose to do expressly what God told them not to do, before all of that we have the original blessing of a God who created all that is in the world, and human beings explicitly, in Gods own image. And when each day was over, God blessed the creation as good.

Its a shame that the western Christian church has historically ignored the preeminent event of original blessing and belabored the disobedience and sin over all else. Weve all heard about original sin but how many of us have ever been told about original blessing? How often do we hear in church that, not only are we created in the image of God, but that we are also called good by that same Creator? Not often enough, thats for sure.

None of this is intended to deny sin we all are capable of causing harm to others, and to ourselves. My words are merely intended to challenge the western churchs preoccupation with it. We are capable of evil; it would be ridiculous to deny that. As human beings created with free will, we have the capacity to do both good and evil. We can make divine or demonic choices just look around the world today and youll see thats true.

But I do not believe that it is our inherent nature to be evil. To claim otherwise is to misread Scripture and misunderstand the creation story. First and foremost, we are good. God says so, and invites us, even now, to behave according that original blessing.