Scripture is abundant with tales where adversity does not have the last word; instead, it serves as a catalyst for growth, transformation, and often- unexpected goodness. It emphasizes that even in the midst of trials, there’s always a nugget of hope to cling onto.

Indeed, the Bible encourages believers to view their struggles from an entirely different perspective. Rather than being pointless or punitive experiences, these challenges are opportunities for personal development and deepened faith. This isn’t just about turning lemons into lemonade—it’s about recognizing that every situation serves a purpose in our spiritual journey. God is always working even when you don’t see it.

The evolution of Valentine’s Day has followed a course similar to the evolution of Santa Claus. It began with legends surrounding an obscure saint (actually, there’s more than one St. Valentine) from early Christian history that oddly morphed over the centuries into something else entirely. Then it exploded into a pop culture and commercial phenomenon in Victorian England (thank the Brits for greeting cards, flowers, and “confectionaries”), with the United States quickly jumping on the bandwagon.

Here are 4 facts about Valentine’s Day: (1) The first Valentine was posted around 1806. (2) Almost one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year on or near February 14 with females purchasing 85% of the cards. This is second only to the number of Christmas cards sent. (3) Americans spent $20.7 billion dollars in 2019 on Valentine’s Day (4) 3 in 10 people don’t celebrate this holiday in America.

Can you imagine nothing? I cannot. I always have to put it into the context of “something”.

A vast number of scientists, astronomers, and cosmologists believe the “Big Bang Theory” was the beginning of our universe with a current estimate of 200 billion trillion stars and planets. (They also put this theory in the context of an understandable “something”.)  

As humans on this planet Earth, we view time from a temporal perspective. Time is what we experience in our daily lives. It’s linear, measurable, and finite. It’s relative and deeply personal. Type A personalities are often time driven, never wanting to be late for anything, no matter how insignificant. Type B personalities are more relaxed and carefree about time; they are not stressed about being late, no matter how significant.

We have an intimate Heavenly Father that trains His kids to become like Jesus.

Earth is God’s training ground for each of us. God uses grace in His training. God’s grace is His unmerited love. Grace means that God showered love and blessing on those who did not in any way deserve or earn it. They deserved His judgment and wrath. But He showed them love.

If I drew a long horizontal line upon which I drew a small dot and asked, “If that is a timeline, what do you think the dot represents?” You might answer that is your life in comparison to human history!”

However, that is incorrect. You immediately may ask, “What else could it be?”

“The line is all of eternity, the dot is human history,”

 “So where is your life?”  “It is just a little tiny speck on the dot, so little one can’t see it.” Counting all the years in the Bible since Creation up to the current time adds up to less than several thousand years which is a very small dot on the line of eternity. Even if your life span on Earth is 100 years, it is a very tiny speck on the dot.

As we start a new year, our rearview mirror can sometimes be our worst enemy. Most of us have an innate tendency to dwell on negative things in the past. Many of those things are a direct result of being hurt by someone else. Those hurts are bumps in our life journey that really jarred us as we went over them. These bumps can become mountains if we continue to look in our rear-view mirror.

We’re all guilty of offending other people, and we’ve all been offended by other people; those are the facts of living in a sinful world. But as Christians we’re told to be forgiving people. It’s impossible to live a victorious Christian life with unforgiveness in our life. It isn’t the offense that destroys relationships, it’s the inability to forgive that destroys relationships.

One more year is now past, and you may be thinking about new opportunities and goals to help you start the new year right. If you’re rolling your eyes at the thought of “New Year’s Resolutions,” let me just state the obvious: There’s nothing significant about January 1 when it comes to goals. There is nothing magical about new year’s resolutions. In fact, research has found that only about 45% of people even make resolutions. (And 35% of those who do quit them before the end of January.)

When I was a youngster, I could not wait to open my gifts under the Christmas tree, especially those from Santa Claus. Since that time, I have come to realize that the best gifts giver is our Heavenly Father. These gifts are by far the most precious in that they are all wrapped in LOVE. These gifts that I have received have also been received by innumerable others throughout history and are God’s good and perfect gifts.

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

We all enjoy the temporal delights of this season with the beautiful decorations inside and outside, family get togethers, gift giving and receiving, the Christmas movies, great food, and other festive things that give us pleasure.

As we celebrate Christmas, do we truly understand the eternal significance of this holiday for each one of us? I did not clearly understand this until God presented to me the exciting Big Picture of the Bible which opened God’s powerful and living Word (Hebrews 4:12) to me.  (An abbreviated version of the Big Picture is below; a more detailed version is available at no cost in both books (written and audio) on the website shoeleatherfaith.com.)