When “good news” was vastly better than imagined …

Have you ever had someone say they had some good news for you, only to discover their claim to be overstated?

Kind of like a story from Bits & Pieces about a farmer …

A farmer went into his banker’s office and announced he had bad news and good news.

“First, the bad news…”

“Well,” said the farmer, “I can’t make my mortgage payments. And that crop loan I’ve taken out for the past 10 years I can’t pay that off, either. Not only that, I won’t be able to pay you the couple of hundred thousand I still have outstanding on my tractors and other equipment. So I’m going to have to give up the farm and turn it all over to you for whatever you can salvage out of it.”

Silence prevailed for a minute and then the banker said, “What’s the good news?”

“The good news is that I’m going to keep on banking with you,” said the farmer.

With that kind of good news, who needs bad news?!

Fortunately, at some point in our lives, we’ve all received some kind of “good news.” It might have been something like:

“You have a healthy baby/girl boy.”

“The test has come back as benign.”

“We’ve decided to hire you …”

“Everyone came through the disaster safely …”

“I asked her to marry me and she said yes!”

… and others things that were really good news.

But there’s one time in history when someone — this time being an angel — made the claim of good news for all the world, and it was truly good.

I mean astoundingly good!

So good it was beyond what most would have imagined.

The good news?

“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior — yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.’ Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven — praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased,'” Luke 2:8-14.

The worst news you could have in your entire lifetime is that you are lost in your sin and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to fix it.

But the good news — really good news! — is that God has provided to you a Savior!

There is no news greater than that!

The news that God loved us so much that He gave to us His own Son to enter into the world He created, to be with His creation and be THE means of our salvation from sin and death is the greatest news of all!

It is so great, it should define our lives and be a reason for our eternal praise of God, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

How have you responded to the truly good news proclaimed on that first Christmas?

Scotty