The First Day of Advent

The First Day of Advent

Sunday, December 3, 2017

These [miraculous signs] are written

that you may believe Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God,

and that believing 

you may have life in His name.”

John 20:31

Mrs. Elsie Galloway was my fourth grade language arts teacher. She encouraged us to write and did creative things to get us to put our ideas on paper. She was a wonderful teacher, but I only remember one thing she said. “If you write what you are thinking and write it well, you can share that thought with others for years and years to come.” That idea intrigued me then – still does – and I think it was at that moment that my love of writing was born. Unlike the Scriptures, most of what I have written is not great, but I have had fun putting my thoughts on paper.

Mrs. Galloway did not teach the writers of the Bible, but her principle idea certainly applies, for they wrote long ago, and we know their thoughts today as we read! I often wonder just how much they understood about the eternal importance of what they were putting on parchment. I wonder if any of them had any idea that thousands of years later we would be reading what they, inspired by God, had written. I wonder that about John and the verse above.

John has written the most personal of the gospels – tender, sensitive, and very loving. Obviously, he would have liked to write much, much more, but he realized that he could never tell all that he had learned from Jesus. (Read John 21:25) So, much as I have had to choose my verses carefully, John had to choose his incidents carefully. Finally, he clearly tells us his purpose: he wants all of us to live – really live – because we have believed in the One who originated the idea of life, who created life way back in Genesis (yes, Jesus was in Genesis), and who gave real meaning to that life through His own life, death, and resurrection!

John wanted us to know his Lord! He wrote his whole gospel with that one goal in mind, and he chose his words carefully that we could know this gift of God “that keeps on giving!”

Father, thank you for John, the wonderful disciple who stayed by our Lord’s side as he suffered on an ugly cross for our sin. Thank you that he wrote about Jesus so that we could know Him. But most of all, thank you for Jesus, that loveliest of gifts you gave us that first Christmas. Amen.

The Light of the World
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.