Our tendency is to fill our minds and spend our lives with things that do not last. But if want to grow towards maturity in God, we’ve got to think about the stuff of eternity. When we do, we gain an increasingly clear understanding of God’s mercies and we invite Jesus’ renewing power into our everyday lives.

The story of Simeon and Anna is a beautiful picture of the way that God’s words bring life in the context of community. When young and old, male and female, rich and poor, come together to listen to God and share his words with others, hope emerges into our circumstances as God reveals Jesus to us in a fresh way.

The way the Christmas story "went down" (poverty, no room in the inn, manger crib, smelly shepherds, etc.) often makes us feel that we should have done a better job receiving the King of Kings into our midst. Shouldn't we have prepared a luxurious palace with servants and decor fit for royalty? What if, instead, the Son of God arrived in precisely the way God intended to teach us that real life is not about the "extras"?

Despite his mature faith and old age, Zechariah struggles to believe God when a miracle is promised, and he enters a time of discipline. God uses this time of forced, quiet reflection to grow him deeper in his maturity. When the time is finished Zechariah overflows with a song of praise that impacts his neighbours with the hope of the coming “Sunrise” of God.

Mary is given some very unexpected news - news that wasn't exactly all good news for her in her circumstance. Yet she was humble and invited God to do His will in her life. Her posture of humility allowed her to trust God, even though she didn't understand and allowed her to praise Him, even in extremely unexpected circumstances.

No matter now deep the darkness in our lives or in the world around us, God’s light has power to break in and bring joy, freedom and peace. This is a real and tangible hope that we cannot achieve on our own and we should not keep to ourselves.

Jesus famously called his disciples to a new life by saying, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” and within six months he sent them ahead in pairs to invite people into the Kingdom. Often we feel we don’t have the maturity, intelligence, or courage to speak in a way that God could use, but Paul encourages us to realize that we already have all the resources we need to receive Jesus and share the good news with others.

You are KNOWN and LOVED by Jesus. His Love for you is not a tool for the journey, it is the point of the journey.

Often we are slow to praise God when life is good, and reluctant to praise when life is difficult. In the scene just following God’s decisive Red Sea victory, we see what it looks like to turn good moments into praise and difficult moments into opportunities for deeper relationship with God.

The well-known story of the Red Sea crossing speaks powerfully into our own "holy detours" that we encounter on the journey to freedom. With multiple layers of practical wisdom, this ancient story lays out for us what to expect and how to walk when God invites us onto a longer and more crooked path than we'd choose for ourselves.