We visited the science museum a few weeks ago and now my son wants to tell everyone about “how they make power”. There was a display that showed how electricity starts with the sun, which feeds the trees, that go into a chipper. Then that converted energy goes into the broiler, then the turbine, then the generator. . . . . . and that’s how we get electricity into our home. “But wait!”, my son will bellow, “WHO makes the sun? GOD!” God, of course. So it is really God that begins the chain. God gives us power. It’s God that “alone does marvelous deeds.”

Our God, who made heaven and earth, who holds the seasons and time and space in his hands, included us in the greatest love story of all time. This love story started with God creating our beautiful world, a perfect world, that we ruined with the sin and evil that we brought into it.

Some like to blame the devil for our sin, and others try to push the blame onto Adam and Eve, the first people that doubted and disobeyed God. Those first people also tried to pass on the blame. Adam said, “Eve gave me the fruit!” and Eve said, “The snake tricked me!” But we can’t hide our sin from God. God saw the truth when Adam and Eve and all people after them—yes, you and me as well! —brought sin into the world. We are to blame.

And yet God made a promise just after Adam and Eve sinned. He promised that Jesus would come and “crush the devil” and rescue us from our problem of sin. He made that same promise to Noah and Abraham and all of their decedents, and he fulfilled that promise on Christmas Day. The fulfillment of this promise is great news for all people!

The month of January can be tough for some people. Christmas is over, family scatters, the days are short, and the winter is long. In some parts of the world, winter can make us feel as though we won’t ever feel the warmth of the sun again. But wait! WHO made the sun? God, the one who created the sun and world and all things, promises that he will come again. The whole world will know his name when he comes again to take us to heaven. The whole world will see his glory on that day. Let us praise his glorious name forever!