Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone…
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…”
Isaiah 9:2, 6a (ESV)

“Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
John 1: 4-5 (TLB)

I’ll bet you wouldn’t have thought of doing it that way. I know that I wouldn’t have.

That is, if we had even thought of doing it at all.

It was a time when a curtain of darkness enveloped the world.

But a Messiah was promised.

A Savior for them way back then. And for us today.

But years kept passing by, generations came and went—and no Messiah. No change as promised.

It had to take a lot of faith. Hope surely was waning. They had to be worrying a bit, if they’re anything like those of us today.

Facing each of our days, with our own curtains of darkness lowered over our personal lives.

While curtains of darkness appear unexpectedly from everywhere, to cover us all adding to our collective and ever-present concerns.

And then God sent a Light into the world over two-thousand years ago in the darkness of a cold, damp stable.

Why?

Why did God do that?

One—Eternal life. Two—Life to the fullest. Three—Life for others.

One. Two. Three.

One—Eternal life. “For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10: 9 (TLB)

Two—Life to the fullest. “So Jesus said to them again…‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’” John 10: 10 (NIV)

Three—Life for others. And Jesus said, “Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of the laws of Moses in a nutshell.” Matthew 7: 12 (TLB)

“And Jesus came and said to them…‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…’” Matthew 28: 18a, 19a (ESV)

A curtain of darkness covered the world and the lives of those so very long ago.

And a curtain of darkness rears up at times in our world and lives today.

But a Light came into the world over two-thousand years ago that all the darkness of the world cannot and will not overcome.

“Eternal life is in Him, and this life gives light to all mankind.

His life is the Light that shines through the darkness—

and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1: 4-5 (TLB)

God thought of it.

God did it—for them way back then.

For you and for me, today.

Why? One. Two. Three.

Thank you, Lord.

In His Name–Scott