Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.
It is easy in our world to become overwhelmed with evil. A moment of observation shows a hopeless scene in comparison to God’s hope for us. Marriage is mocked. Families are broken. Materialism is king. Mankind lashes out in rage and massacre. Yet millions of others numb with their addictions. We are a people lost and groping in darkness, struggling to find our way.
We can blame video games or assault weapons or Barak Obama, but the truth is that sin is to blame. Evil was unchained and invited into our world thousands of years ago, and still it maintains a foothold. We reap the effects of it everyday.
But there is another truth, a truth more powerful. A truth that is acceptable to speak in America this week. The truth of Jesus.
He is a truth that is bigger than our enemy. Bigger than evil. And bigger than one day of the year.
As Joseph and Mary presented their eight-day old son in the temple, the Holy Spirit was on Simeon as he prophesied:
Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
Salvation was born to bring light and glory to all the nations of the world. That salvation is here. That salvation is for the isolated teenage boy whose thoughts are consumed by murder. That salvation is for the brokenhearted who have lost their children. That salvation is for the mother who used her right to choose but is haunted by the cries she will never hear. That salvation is for that addict who has burned her soul with poison. That salvation is for the innocent plagued by memories of abuse. That salvation is for a wife striving to love and a mother struggling to raise her children. That salvation is for me.
So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. -Jesus
