Day 4 - Week 3 - John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,"

"...who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Another day of asking, "God, why do these things have to happen?  Why do earthquakes occur that take thousands of live, cause loss of homes and interrupt our lives of reasonable serenity?"  Maybe the question contains the answer...maybe we are not supposed to have "lives of reasonable serenity" right now.  Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."  Notice the imperative, "will" --- not "may", not "might", not "could" --- it's a given..."you will."  This world, after the fall, was never designed for perfection...not in man and not in nature.  Nature groans, just like we do, longing for things to be made right again.  For just as man started the death process upon departure from Eden, the world did as well, for some inexplicable reason tied to the curse that sin brought.  Creation became subject to change, change from perfection to ever increasing imperfection.  The kind of imperfection that results in earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, massive floods, and all the more as creation moves farther and farther away from it's original perfection, and along with man, longing for its restoration.  Paul tells us in Romans 8:20-23, "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."

But Jesus came!  He came "from the Father, full of grace and truth."   Jesus came and He overcame this world...but wait a minute, we're still having troubles.  What did He say, "Take heart!" (and yes, even though I'm an exclamation point kind of person, this one really is included in Scripture!)  The King James says, "Be of good cheer!"  (That sounds like something King James would say, doesn't it?)  And we're back again to our verse...He "came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Full of grace and truth...

Grace, "that which affords joy" --- Jesus brought to us the ability to have joy, even in this world of trouble, because we know that He is the overcomer...that He will bring all of nature under His rule, and we won't live in this state of imperfection when He comes again as King over all.

Truth, "what is true in any matter" --- Jesus brought with Him absolute and complete truth.  Whatever we need to know, He is the answer, the true answer.  He brought complete knowledge of the truth of God---"if you have seen Me, you have seen my Father."  We can trust everything about Jesus and His message of hope and a future with Him.

My heart breaks for those who find their lives disrupted by destruction tonight, but it breaks even more for them if they do not know that there is One who came from God above bringing with him grace and truth, and a reason to "take heart!"