Changing history

There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. — Luke 2:11

Today when we can make international cell-phone calls, send worldwide e-mail, and download images from space on our computers, it’s difficult to imagine the impact of one small satellite the size of a basketball. But on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union’s launching of Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite, ushered in the modern Space Age and changed the course of history. Nations rushed to catch up, technological development accelerated, and fear alternated with hope about the meaning of it all for humanity.

But events that alter the present and the future sometimes occur in obscurity. That was true of the birth of Jesus — just one baby, born to an ordinary couple in a small town. But it changed the course of history. The words of an angel spoken to shepherds began to spread: “There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Nineteen centuries later, Phillips Brooks wrote of Bethlehem, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

When we open our lives to Christ the Lord and acknowledge Him as our Savior, the course of our future history is changed for time and eternity. These “good tidings of great joy” (v. 10) are for everyone, everywhere. — David McCasland

The turning point in history

Occurred one night in Bethlehem;

And shepherds spread the glorious news

The angel had announced to them. — Hess

READ: Luke 2:1-14

The hinge of history is found on the door of a Bethlehem stable.

The Bible in one year:

• Isaiah 20-22

• Ephesians 6