FOSTER CARE 20 december 2024 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida edition It’s that time of year again where, if we’re not careful, we’ll miss an incredible chance to really slow down and reflect on the gift that is Jesus. Around 4KIDS, I am watching the team prepare for our annual Gift of Hope Toy Drive. These gifts, so carefully and lovingly collected by the community, allow our foster and adoptive families to have gifts they can give to the children in their homes. Passing on a gift is at the core of who we are and at the core of the gospel. This time of year you’re going to hear a lot about Jesus and a lot of it will be things you’ve heard before, but there’s a gift that Jesus brought to us that we now embody and get to give to others–and I don’t want us to miss it. Jesus brought the Good News (pun intended there). Not only that, but he also embodied the Good News, and that means you and I get to be the Good News to the world we live in today! Good News bearers When Jesus came to us, he represented the Good News for all – even for those who didn’t fully know who he was or have an understanding of the Jewish faith. His birth that we celebrate today was the beginning of really, really Good News for everyone. Something I think we can so often overlook is how following Christ makes us the bearers of this same Good News. This means everywhere we go we are the living Epistles, literal living articles, that will be read and interpreted by everyone who comes into contact with us. So, are they getting “turbulent times” from us or deep, soul-changing Good News? The power of Good News You’ve probably heard this analogy before but it’s so timely here; there are two types of people, the “thermostats” and the “thermometers.” Our “thermostats” are setting the temperature, and our “thermometers” are simply reading the room and displaying the temperature. As Good News bearers we have the ability to walk into a room and set the temperature. We don’t have to fall in line with culture, we have the power to be counter cultural. We get to set the temperature to goodness! It makes me think of the magnetic power we all learned about in third grade. Magnets have this pull and power of attraction; we have that same ability to pull people not only toward us but to pull goodness out of them in return. People are naturally so drawn to the Good News inside us, especially when everywhere else they turn there is nothing but the same tired rhetoric filled with fear and criticism. What will they see? What if, as these Good News bearers, we proudly shared a message filled with hope, love and belonging? This can sound so intimidating but it’s actually incredibly simple. I’ll give you my own accidental example. Our next-door neighbor is an older gentleman, and I’ve regularly found different things on his property that have needed some care – a fence that needed mending or a tree that needed to be cut back. I’ve taken care of these tasks myself as I care for our own yard, admittedly not thinking too much of it. He recently went to my wife and asked what our kids wanted for Christmas. He said he wanted to get them gifts because the way I have been helping him has meant more to him than he could even express. I had no idea this seemingly simple act was displaying such hope to my neighbor. Carrying the Good News often looks just like that, it’s taking in your neighbor’s trash can or offering to help them trim some trees while you are trimming your own. It’s striking up a conversation with the cashier at the grocery store. It’s buying a new Christmas present for a child in foster care who’s never unwrapped a brand-new toy. It’s smiling and waving to fellow parents in the car pick up line. It’s sending a simple text or making a call to the friends you’ve lost touch with. When we exude the Good News, it doesn’t have to look like a complicated or emphatic use of apologetics. It's the goodness we share and the hope we extend that allows people to encounter who Christ is. In my experience it’s the communication that is read of us rather than the communication that is heard from us that truly touches hearts and moves people toward the hope of Jesus. Let people see the good So I challenge you, let people see the good. Especially in this season and in this climate where everywhere they turn the world offers only hopelessness. The world is hungry for hope and starved of the kind of love and belonging that this Good News has to offer. We have so much to hope for and so much love in Christ to share. I pray this Christmas season is filled with moments that give you the chance to shine the light of hope and share the gift of the Good News to a world that is waiting. You Are Good News - Andrew Holmes - 4KIDS President
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