truth wears pants.

So I am reading Handbook of Faith, Hope and Love by Saint Augustine. Contained in the third and fourth chapters is an idea, which is by no means new to me, but nonetheless has struck me as if breaking into my psyche for the very first time. Augustine begins to lay out the argument that everything that is is good. All created things created by God are good, for he cannot create less than goodness. Evil is simply a deprivation of that inherent goodness. He goes further to say that God has allowed this deprivation to occur and even created his creation with the ability to become deprived. The evil can not exist except in what is good. If something were to become all evil it would cease to exist because the very thing itself is good. Like a sickness, the evil must have a host...and since all host are created as good from the creator, the sickness is only a deprivation of what is good.Also, good can only be measured next to evil. The heights of love can only be truly realized in stark contrast to the depths of hate. Desire can only be proven in the face of opposition. What would life be without evil? God is not the author of evil, but he allows it and even has created us with the capacity to do evil. The adventure of life is in the contrast. How can I drink deep the beauty of a spring day in the sun without the days of storm clouds. Like a filmmaker who breaks tension with comic relief, God has again shown his infinite wisdom and grace by providing for us a struggle that makes life worth it. Just a little something that I didn't learn, but was again made aware of.