The View from 400 Miles

December 1, 2016

Read: John 1:1–14
Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 40–41; 2 Peter 3

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.—John 1:9

“My perspective on earth changed dramatically the very first time I went into space,” says Space Shuttle astronaut Charles Frank Bolden Jr. From four hundred miles above the earth, all looked peaceful and beautiful to him. Yet Bolden recalled later that as he passed over the Middle East, he was “shaken into reality” when he considered the ongoing conflict there. During an interview with film producer Jared Leto, Bolden spoke of that moment as a time when he saw the earth with a sense of how it ought to be—and then sensed a challenge to do all he could to make it better.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the world was not the way God intended it. Into this moral and spiritual darkness Jesus came bringing life and light to all (John 1:4). Even though the world didn’t recognize Him, “to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (v. 12).

When life is not the way it ought to be we are deeply saddened—when families break up, children go hungry, and the world wages war. But God promises that through faith in Christ anyone can begin to move in a new direction.

The Christmas season reminds us that Jesus, the Savior, gives the gift of life and light to everyone who will receive and follow Him. —David McCasland

Father in heaven, may we share the light and life of Jesus with others today.

Share the hope of Christmas with your family and friends. Visit us at ourdailybread.org/GiftofGrace for outreach resources.

God is at work to make us who He intends us to be.

INSIGHT: The Lord Jesus gives the gift of light (John 8:12) and life (14:6) to all who believe in Him so they may enter into and experience eternal life with God (3:15-16; 6:47; 17:3). God has given us light embodied in Jesus (the living Word; John 1:1) and expressed in print in the written Word of God, the Bible (Ps. 119:105). As we focus on Jesus and immerse our minds responsively in God’s words, we find light shining more and more upon our daily path. Then we are better able to be what God intended us to be. Jim Townsend

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