Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/909943
E verybody likes good news. We thirst for it and lap it up with delight when it's set before us. It feels like 2017 has been a bad year for good news and a banner year for bad news. Natural disasters and manmade horrors vie for our attention almost every day. We grieve. We worry. We get angry. And we yearn for what's wrong in the world to be set right, for what's broken in the world to be made whole, and for what's ugly in the world to be made beautiful. We need some good news. So did the nation of Israel a couple of millennia ago. The reign of Caesar Augustus had made the political power of Rome over the Jews even more onerous. They were oppressed and humiliated, servants in their own land. But then, with the glory of the Lord shattering the darkness of an ebony sky, an angel proclaimed to a group of frightened shepherds, "Don't be afraid. Behold, I bring you good news that will bring great joy for all people" (Luke 2:10, NLT). During this past year I've been tempted to wish that the angel of the Lord would show up in the nighttime sky over my backyard and make that same announcement. But he doesn't need to. Jesus is the embodiment of the good news announced by the angel. And we have seen it, heard it, believed it, and been changed by it because of our faith in Him. We who have believed in Jesus are the people of good news. Just as the people of Israel longed for good news over 2,000 years ago, so our neighbors yearn to hear good news as well. As we celebrate the good news embodied by the One whose birth we remember during this Advent season, let's resolve to be that good news in the ears of all who know us. Rejoicing in good news, Mark Young