Message summary: God's kindness was demonstrated when He sent a Savior, Jesus. Let us receive God's loving-kindness with gratitude and live as His children expressing love and kindness to one another.

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"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7).

All over the world today there will be billions of interactions between people. Sadly, many of those interactions will be characterized by evil but there will also be scores of unseen, unreported, and unheralded acts of kindness. Here's an example.

Ester was recently the recipient of an act of kindness from a longtime friend. We met Galen and Nancy when we first moved to Lancaster County in February 2001, but don't see them often enough. Galen, a retired farmer, had heard about Ester's new job at Weis Supermarket and stopped in to say hello, to wish her well in her new workplace. The first time he visited she was not working, but the next day a fellow worker told her an older gentleman had stopped by to see her.

The next day Galen visited again, specifically to greet Ester, and it sure made her day! They have a line they've exchanged since she was a young teen that gets them both chuckling. He will say to Ester, no matter the season, "Are you dreaming what I'm dreaming of.... A white Christmas?" And sure enough, during his brief visit, he asked her the usual question and she laughingly told us about it. Galen was practicing the sentiment of a Collingsworth Family song titled, "Show A Little Bit Of Love and Kindness".

In what ways can you show a little bit of love and kindness today to a needy and hurting world?

But today we want to consider a divine act of kindness. It wasn't a random act. It was eternally deliberate, decidedly purposeful and lovingly planned. The daily portion of Scripture surely contains some of the richest theological truths in the entire Bible. Every phrase is rich and loaded with truth.

It begins, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared". That's the incarnation! The Greek word for kindness "chrestotes" is used rather infrequently in the New Testament, and only five times does it refer to a characteristic of God.

Theologian Charles Hodge points out that "God's grace is manifested through His kindness towards us, and that kindness is exercised through Christ and for His sake. The ground of this goodness is not in us but in Christ, and hence its character as grace, or unmerited favor."

Isn't it wonderful that one of the eternal qualities used to describe the God of the Universe is "kindness"!  In fact one of the richest expressions of His kindness is from a teaching found in the gospels. It can easily be overlooked, since it primarily deals with our love for one another.

Jesus, in teaching that we are to love even our enemies, describes the Most High as "kind to the ungrateful and wicked" (Luke 6:35). All over the world today His kindness is being demonstrated even to the ungrateful and wicked, many whom defiantly deny Him. God's own kindness is without measure.

Christ's willingness to offer Himself to save the lost world shows the extent of God's kindness, that He offered Himself to the least deserving. As God's chosen children we are to imitate His kindness in our relationships with others, even those whom we might categorize as the least deserving. "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, and over all these virtues put on love which binds them altogether in perfect unity" (Colossians 3:12).

The message of Colossians 3:12 is like a package we might give to someone at Christmas. Inside the package are the wonderful virtues: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. But the gifts inside the package are only operable when the wrapping paper and bow made of love binds all the virtues together in perfect harmony.

Let us accept God's kindness and love with gratitude and live as His children, expressing love and kindness to one another.

Be encouraged today!  Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber