We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:3 (NIV)
Lavished Love
During Christmas 2020, a mystery anonymous Santa Claus sent gift cards worth $250 with poems to several hundred residents of a neighborhood in western Canada. Edmonton resident Leigh-Ann MacNaughton said on Facebook, “I woke up to find this on my step with a very large gift card. It appears my whole neighbourhood got one,” alongside a picture of a three-verse composition about hope and solidarity. Around 400 similar envelopes were dropped on December 24, and each contained a $250 Walmart voucher, residents told local media.
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On YouTube there is a fascinating interview from a 1965 episode of the TV show I’ve Got a Secret with the last remaining witness to the assassination of President Lincoln. He was 5 years old when family friends took him to see the play at Ford’s Theatre. There is nothing like an eyewitness to a great historical event. One of the strengths of the Biblical narrative is that it was written by eyewitnesses to all that the Bible records. The Gospel accounts are examples of this. The apostle John records what he saw and heard during his over three years walking daily with Jesus. This is what John is getting at when he writes in 1 John 1:3: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” John loved the Lord Jesus. He’d had the privilege of sitting at the feet of Jesus, walking with Him and learning from Him. He reminds us that we can trust what we read – in his Gospel and in all the Bible.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley