Photo by divlja

As Christmas approaches, it's a great time to pause and reflect on the meaning of life. From my family to yours, I offer one simple meditation.

Here is a
man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew
up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was
thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a
book. He never held an office.

He never owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled
two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He had no credentials but
Himself.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His
friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He
went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two
thieves.

His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while
He was dying -- and that was His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and
laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of
the human race and the leader of progress. I am far within the mark when I say
that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built,
and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put
together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as
that One Solitary Life.

by James A. Francis