By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

As my wife and I gathered with nearly 500 others on a boat that carried us through part of New York Harbor this summer, we were all amazed.  Amazed at the awesomeness of the moment.  Amazed at the thoughts of countless others who had come into our great country with this as their first vision of freedom.  We were heading toward the Statue of Liberty.

It’s true.  It isn’t nearly as large as we were led to believe by those old black and white photos in our history books years ago.  But it looms on the horizon, a statement of the freedoms anyone can enjoy by simply coming into the United States of America.

This Christmas season and into the new year would be an especially good time to focus on the Christ Child.  God our Heavenly Father descended to this earth in the form of the tiny baby Jesus.  He lived, He died, and He was resurrected for you and for me.  And all of this was done so that we could know the free gift of salvation and the freedom of being a Child of God ourselves.

I snapped picture after picture after picture that afternoon in New York.  I’d never seen that great statue before, and I may never again.  I wonder about the mental pictures that the shepherds and others took as they stood at the foot of that cattle trough turned bed and gazed upon the King of Kings.  Seeing Him for the first time was the only time it took for a changed lifetime and eternity ahead.  You see, they met the Master that day.  They were introduced to the Gospel Himself.  And they were forever changed!
Have you looked for Him?  Have you seen Him?  Have you met Him?  It only takes once, and you will never ever be the same again.

From one voyager to another in this boat we call life, may your holidays be truly blessed in His presence.
Just a thought.