“Here begins the Good News about Jesus the Messiah …”
Those were the first words I read in my Bible for 2017. I pretty much stopped there. It was only half a verse. But, I felt like God pulled back a stage curtain, cued an orchestra, and arranged for the sun to rise at exactly the right moment to backlight that announcement. I saw it as a movie opening, basically.
I didn’t read any further for several minutes. I just soaked in those words. I could hear them in a Star Wars kind of overture. No, it was more like Lord of the Rings. Okay, neither of those are epic enough to describe the Son of God coming to save the world. My sensory experiences are still limited to earth stuff.
We can probalby agree, Dear Reader, that 2016 had some bumps. In fact, the final weekend of the year held yucky-sickness squared for me. Actually, it was a trifecta. I’m rarely ill, so I pretty much still want to die.
Honestly, I opened my Bible in something of a fog this morning and couldn’t even remember where I’d left off in my reading during the pre-holiday-get-out-0f-town-wrap-that-last-gift rush.
It was Mark. The most concise of the gospel writers. In the New Living Translation, he takes the enire forty days of wildernes temptation and boils it down to a couple of sentences. As if to say, “Check with the other guys for those details.”
And he opens his book with these delicious words, “Here begins the Good News …”
I have decided to take those words and own them. I may not have enough hope or faith or strength right this minute to own them for all of 2017. (Or all of today) But I shall own them for this hour. And, when my hope and strength run out, I’ll read them again.
Cue the music.